Effects of Foliar Spray of Seaweed Extract on Growth, Yield and Qualitative Characteristics of Cherry Tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum var. Cerasiforme)

Effects of seaweed extract Algaren® foliar spray at four levels (0, 0.2, 0.6 and 1 mlL-1) on growth; yield and quality of cherry tomatoes grown in greenhouse conditions were studied. Vegetative and generative characteristics including plant height, fruit set percent and fruit mean weight; as well as fruit quality including fruit firmness, vitamin C content, total soluble solids and titratable acidity were significantly affected by treatments. In contrast, the differences between leaf chlorop0hyll content, node numbers to the first truss and number of flowers in each truss under different levels of seaweed extract were not significantly affected. According to the results, foliar application of seaweed extract at the concentrations of 0.2 and 0.6 mlL-1 were recommended for higher yield and improved fruit quality, respectively.