Abstract

The experiment was conducted to test the influence of different soil amendments types on postharvest performance of tomato fruits. The soil amendments were NPK 15-15-15 at 250kg/ha plus ‘Asasewura’ cocoa fertilizer (NPK 0-22-18 + 9CaO + 6s + 5MgO(s) at (250kg/ha), NPK 15-15-15 at 250kg/ha plus sulphate of ammonia (125kg/ha), poultry manure (1.1kg/ m²) and control (no amendment). Selected quality traits of tomato fruits harvested at the pink colour stage were evaluated after seven (7) days storage under average temperatures of 26.85°C and relative humidity of 85.75%. Fruit quality traits studied were fruit weight loss, firmness, general appearance, membrane ion leakage, pericarp thickness, decay, total soluble solids, pericarp weight, dry matter, moisture content and fruit shelf life. Significant differences among the soil amendments (P < 0.002) were observed in fruit quality traits studied. Fruits harvested from soil amended with NPK plus ‘Asasewura’ cocoa fertilizer recorded lower in weight loss, membrane ion leakage decay and moisture content and higher fruit firmness, general appearance, total soluble solids, dry matter and shelf life than fruits harvested from fields amended with NPK plus Sulphate of ammonia, Poultry manure and Control respectively. Significant correlations (P < 0.01 and P < 0.05) were observed among the quality traits evaluated. Fruit weight loss showed significantly but negative correlation between fruit firmness (-0.71) and shelf life (-0.71) but indicated significant but positive correlation between membrane ion leakage (0.63) and fruit decay (0.57) respectively. Fruit pericarp thickness showed significant but positive correlation between general appearance (0.69), pericarp weight (0.68) and total soluble solids (0.73).

Key words: Amendments, tomato, Asasewura cocoa fertilizer, postharvest, performance.