Effects of Organic Fertilizers and a Microbial Inoculant

on Leaf Photosynthesis and Fruit Yield and Quality of

Tomato Plants

Hui-lian Xu, Amin Uddin Mridha, Ran Wang

An experiment was conducted by the researcher to determine the effect of Organic fertilizers
and microbial inoculants on the leaf photosynthetic ability, fruit yield and the fruit quality of the tomato
plant. They use organic fertilizers such as chicken manures and bokashi which is made through the
anaerobic fermentation of oilseed cake, rice bran and fish processing wastes. To compare the effects,
the researchers differentiate by implementing different treatments of fertilization as well as using of
synthetic fertilizers with or without using microbial inoculants or effective microorganisms.

To determine the photosynthetic ability of the plants with different treatments they use LiCor-
6400. The researchers also determine the quantum yield of the plants. The plants that is treated with
bokashi has higher photosynthetic capacity than the treatments which use chemical fertilizer, though in
later period of plants growth as it take time to mineralized the nutrients in organically treated soils. This
means that plants has more ability to produce its own food by using silent and absorbing CO2 gases at
the atmosphere. On the other hand, treatment of different fertilizers with aid of microbial inoculants
shows that the use of EM increases the photosynthetic capacity and and quantum yield of the plants
with different treatments.

The researcher also tested the sugar and organic acids of the fruit of the plants. The results
shows that treatment with chicken manure with or without microbial inoculants has the higher amount
of sugars, leaving the treatment with chemical fertilizer having low amount of sugar. This can imply that
harvested fruits treated organically has longer shelflife than the fruit treated chemically. Meanwhile, the
plots treated with bokashi with or without microbial inoculants having the plots treated chemically the
lowest. This determines the quality of fruits and its nutritional availability.

Through these tests we can conclude that the use of organic treatment with the help of
microbial inoculants can increase the yield, increase the late growth rate, improvisation of the soil
properties and increaing the quality of the produce.