2025/07/18 by Biruk Masrie, Tesfaye Girma
paper · doi:10.20372/nadre:9472
The main argument existed, by tomato growers’ who stake and prune their tomatoes is that such cultural methods tend<br> to increase marketable yields because the fruit clusters develop high above the soil, free from dirt. While numerous trials<br> have been carried elsewhere to determine the relative value of these practices, experimental evidence is lacking for<br> northeastern Ethiopia. This experiment was carried out from October 2019 to March 2020 under irrigation in the eastern<br> Amhara region, at Mersa Agricultural Research Station, Mersa College of Agriculture, Woldia University to determine<br> the effect of stem pruning and staking time on the growth and yield of tomato. Factorial combinations of stem pruning<br> (one, two, three stems pruning or no pruning) and staking time [2 week after transplanting (hereafter WAT), 4WAT and<br> 6WAT] were arranged in randomized complete block design replicated three times. The study measures plant height,<br> number of leaves and branches, days to flowering and maturity and fruit yield. Results showed that plants derived from<br> two stem pruning and staked four weeks after transplanting produced the longest plant (87.67cm) than other treatments.<br> Due to two stem pruning with 2WAT, number of flowers per cluster, number of fruits per plant, individual fruit weight,<br> fruit length and fruit diameter were increased by 24%, 67%, 82%, 52% and 27%, respectively as compared to no stem<br> pruning combine with 2WAT. When plants cultivated with two stem pruning staked at 2WAT, marketable and total fruit<br> yields were increased by 64% and 36%, respectively as compared to no stem pruning combine with 2WAT. In conclusion,<br> for field tomatoes production, under climate conditions as they are prevalent in northeastern Ethiopia, the cultivation with<br> two stem pruning staked 2WAT appears to be highly recommendable but must be guided into location and season based<br> experiments.