Performance of greenhouse tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum Mill.) under compost and other mulch types

This study was conducted at The Princess Tasneem Bent Ghazi Technological Research Station, Al-Balqa' Applied University during the 2013-2014 growing season. The purpose of this study is to assess the impact of different soil mulches on field performance, yield and fruit quality of greenhouse tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum M.) under drip irrigation system. The experiment evaluated seven types of mulch treatments including black plastic, tuff gravel, clear plastic, compost, crushed stone, shredded wood, and the control. A randomized complete block design with three replicates was used. Different mulch types showed significant effects on vegetative growth, early, medium, late harvest, and total yields of the tomato fruits. Compost mulch resulted in the highest total yield. Higher early and medium yields were obtained using black and clear plastic mulches, respectively. In addition, larger fruits were obtained by applying compost mulch. Tomato fruit cracking was also affected in different ways depending on the mulch types used in this study.