Assessment of Drought Tolerance of Tomato Varieties under Different Levels of Irrigation

Abstract

The study assessed the drought tolerance between two varieties of tomato (F1 Mona and F1 Nala) under water stress conditions using different levels of irrigation. Pot experiment was carried out during dry season at Centre for Dryland Agriculture (CDA) Faculty of Agriculture, Bayero University Kano, within the Sudan savannah zone of northern Nigeria. The tomato varieties were subjected to three different levels of irrigation, viz watering after 2 ,4 and 6 days respectively. The experiment was arranged in Complete Randomised Design with three replications. Data was collected on growth parameters (plant height, number of leaves, number of branches and stem girth) and analyzed using GenStat statistical software and significant treatment means were separated using Student- Newman-Keuls test (SNK) at 5% probability level. The results revealed drastic reduction in the growth parameter (plant height, number of leaves, number of branches and stem girth) among all the varieties as the days to irrigation increases. Reduction was more pronounced in F1 Mona variety than F1 Nala which indicates that the latter variety is more tolerant to drought stress than the former variety which appeared to be more susceptible to water stress.