Control of Orobanchae ramosa L. on Tomatoes (Lycopersicon esculentum) using different Soil Amendments and A Herbicide

Abstract

This research project was undertaken at Shambat Research Station, Agricultural Research Corporation, (ARC) during the winter season “2003 – 2004” to assess the effect of the chemical herbicide Pursuit, Urea (NH N2O3), Neem powder and combination of Neem powder and Urea in controlling parasitic flowering plant Orobanche ramosa in Tomato Lycopersicon esculentum crop. 2 It seems that the total treatments have little effect on number of halouk and the number of branches. This means that our treatments; Neem seed powder, urea, urea and Neem seed powder and finally the herbicide Pursuit, didn’t perform as expected; except for the herbicide Pursuit. Although the difference between the number of plants and the number of branches for the urea treatments were not significant, this can also be explained by the use of urea fertilization for all the experiment which nullified variation and the effect of urea. The results showed that the herbicide treatment resulted in less number of halouk plants and less number of branches but it seems that it has adverse effect on the tomato plant which resulted in fewer yields of fruits. This effect of the herbicide could be due to overdose toxicity to tomato plants but not on halouk, also neem seed powder retarded the production of the exudates from host plants that stimulate Orobanchae to germinate. The results showed that the yield of the fruits in the second pick for the control treatment was the highest compared to the treatments, similarly on advance effect of overdose toxicity to tomato plants treated. On the other hand, the yield of control treatment in the first pick was the second low. These results suggest that the advance effect of halouk on the tomato plants were higher at the early stage of the growing of the tomato plant. Again this has already been suggested at the early application of this treatment 3 ‫‪second pick‬‬ ‫‪These results suggest that further detailed research on the‬‬ ‫‪effect of halouk on tomato plant is needed with special emphasis on‬‬ ‫‪parasite effect at the early stages of growth, plus appropriate dose of‬‬ ‫‪treatment, appropriate stage of application, and canceling urea‬‬ ‫.‪treatment‬‬