Natural-Farmed Tomatoes Fruited a Week Sooner, Yielded More
Ahmad Jawid Zamany, Konkuk University, College of Life and Environmental Science, Dept. of Bio-resource and Food Science (student; advisor Kim Doo Hwan) · Afghanistan
A one-season tomato trial (cv. Sunglove) in Paju compared Natural Science Farming, organic and conventional plots. The natural plots started slower but ended with taller plants, more leaves, longer roots, first harvest about a week earlier and the highest marketable yield: 3.80 kg per plant against 3.42 organic and 3.12 conventional. They also scored lower for blossom end rot and insect damage and higher for taste and appearance.
What they found
How does tomato perform under Natural Science Farming compared with organic and conventional (chemical) farming?
Paju district, Korea. Tomato cv. Sunglove. Completely randomized design, 3 treatments, 5 replications, spacing 80 x 100 cm, 24 plants per treatment, plots 3 m x 6.40 m (19.2 m²), total area 290 m². Measured at 30, 60, 90 and 120 days after transplanting; means compared by Duncan's multiple range test (p ≤ 0.05). Planting and harvest dates, soil type, and the exact inputs and rates for each system are not stated.
- Natural Science Farming — Microbes (IMO4) added to the site, soil treatment before planting, seedling treatment, then natural farming solutions applied by observed plant need (solutions and rates not named). In the first month a 'treatment number 2' with more nitrogen was given to help the slow-starting plants.
- Organic farming — Organic fertilizer (type and rate not stated).
- Conventional farming — Chemical fertilizer (type and rate not stated).
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Highest marketable yield: 3.80 kg/plant vs 3.42 organic and 3.12 conventional
Table 6, all three differ (a, b, c). Total yield 4.40 vs 4.04 vs 4.02 kg/plant; fruits per plant 30.6 vs 28.8 vs 25.8.
▶ 9:57 Said and shown on the slides
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First harvest about a week earlier: 60.6 days vs 65.8 organic and 67.6 conventional
Table 7, days taken for first harvesting. The speaker credits the natural plots not getting excess nitrogen.
▶ 10:36 Said and shown on the slides
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Fruit set 82.6% vs 76.8% organic and 73.0% conventional
Table 7, all three differ (a, b, c).
▶ 11:11 Said and shown on the slides
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Slower start, tallest finish: 142.6 cm at 120 days vs 136.0 and 133.8
Table 1. At 30 days the natural plants were shorter (43.6 cm vs 49.8 organic, 49.6 conventional); no difference at 60 and 90 days.
▶ 5:27 Said and shown on the slides
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More leaves late in the season: 34.0 per plant at 120 days vs 28.6 and 28.4
Table 2. At 90 days 40.2 vs 35.4 and 34.8; no difference at 30 and 60 days.
▶ 6:48 Said and shown on the slides
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Heavier plants: 2.748 kg fresh, 288.5 g dry per plant at 60 days
Table 3: organic 2.597 kg / 273.32 g, conventional 2.264 kg / 224.28 g; all differ.
▶ 7:19 Said and shown on the slides
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Longer roots: 33.0 cm vs 27.4 and 24.0; root volume 50.4 cc vs 46.2 and 42.4
Table 4 at 60 days. The speaker credits the IMO4 improving the soil.
▶ 7:59 Said and shown on the slides
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Most chlorophyll and carotenoid in natural plants
Table 5, mg/100 g: total chlorophyll 236.3 vs 228.8 organic (same letter) and 219.3 conventional; carotenoid 41.6 vs 36.9 and 35.1.
▶ 8:56 Said and shown on the slides
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Less blossom end rot: 2.8 vs 3.2 organic and 3.9 conventional
Table 8. Units or scale not stated. Cracking (2.8, 3.3, 3.2) and sunscald (2.4, 2.9, 2.8) not significant.
▶ 11:22 Said and shown on the slides
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Fewer insects: incidence 2.6 vs 3.5 and 3.9 at 90 days
Table 10, lower at every stage (30 days 2.1 vs 3.5 and 3.6). Severity (Table 11) 2.5 vs 3.7 and 4.1 at 90 days; no difference at 30 days. Scale not stated.
▶ 11:59 Said and shown on the slides
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Better appearance and taste scores, slightly higher Brix
Table 12: appearance 4.2 vs 3.4 and 3.2; taste 3.9 vs 3.1 and 2.9; TSS 4.96 vs 4.76 and 4.74 °Brix. Panel size and scale not stated.
▶ 12:52 Said and shown on the slides
- One season, one site, small plots (19.2 m², 5 replications).
- The natural farming inputs, their rates and timing are not given; nor the organic and chemical fertilizers used. Natural plots were fed 'by plant need', so the systems differ in amount as well as kind of feeding.
- Scales for blossom end rot, insect incidence and severity, appearance and taste are not explained; taste panel size not stated.
- Some significance letters look inconsistent (total yield 4.04 'a' vs 4.02 'b'; blossom end rot letters out of order), and Table 9 was not shown.
- Planting and harvest dates not stated.
- In this trial, natural plots that got less nitrogen came into fruit about a week sooner and set more fruit.
- A slow start is not a lost season: the natural plants were shortest at 30 days and tallest at 120.
- Watching the plant and feeding by its stage, rather than by a fixed schedule, was the speaker's method; he links it to fewer insects and less blossom end rot.
Next to Master Cho's teaching
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Agrees
Too much nitrogen holds back tomato fruiting Cho: with too much nitrogen the leaves and branches overgrow and tomato fruits fall; grow fruiting vegetables by the nutritive cycle. The speaker gives this as the reason for earlier harvest.
Cho, Janong Natural Farming (2010 draft), p. 67
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Agrees
More nitrogen early, then the minimum Cho gives relatively more nitrogen in early vegetative growth, from microbes, then keeps nitrogen to the minimum so the C/N ratio climbs toward fruiting. The extra-nitrogen 'treatment number 2' in month one fits this.
Cho, Janong Natural Farming (2003), p. 86–88
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Agrees
Feed by what the plant shows at each stage Cho's Nutritive Cycle: each growth stage needs different nutrients and amounts, and the farmer reads the crop to decide. The speaker described observing the plants and feeding by need.
Cho, Janong Natural Farming (2003), p. 81
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Agrees
Fewer insects on natural plants Cho: pests flourish when crops are acidic or nitrogen is excessive. The trial's lower insect scores fit, though the talk did not measure plant nitrogen.
Cho, Janong Natural Farming (2003), p. 164
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Agrees
Blossom end rot is calcium deficiency Pure KNF teaching names blossom end rot in tomato as a calcium-deficiency sign, answered with Reproduction (WCA). The talk did not say whether WCA was used.
EX. NO. 11 WATER SOLUBLE CALCIUM(WCA)
“When the plant receives excess nitrogen, they promote the vegetative growth. So they don't like to produce fruit.”
▶ 10:53
“When the plant is happy, when the plant is healthy, the insect doesn't like to come in.”
▶ 12:04
“Establishment of the plant in the natural farming system took time.”
▶ 5:42
In this talk
- 0:00Intro
- 0:30Why compare farming systems
- 3:14Trial setup and treatments
- 4:51Plants in the field
- 5:19Plant height
- 6:48Leaves per plant
- 7:19Fresh and dry weight
- 7:53Roots
- 8:26Chlorophyll and carotenoids
- 9:24Root photos
- 9:42Yield
- 10:20First harvest and fruit set
- 11:22Blossom end rot
- 11:59Insects
- 12:41Taste, appearance and Brix
- 13:13Fruit photos and close
Transcript
Transcribed and checked by hand against the recording. Click any time to play from there.
0:00 Good morning to everyone. I am Ahmad Jawid Zamany from Afghanistan. I am one of the students of Konkuk University. Today I am going to present you my experimental results, which is the performance of the tomato under natural science, organic and conventional farming. In conventional farming, the chemicals which are used are not only harmful, they pollute the environment as well.
0:45 And the other hand, when we use a lot of chemicals in conventional farming, we have to pay a lot of money to buy the chemicals. So, at the final, what will be happen? The cost of production will increase, and we will have less net income from the crop. So, a lot of researches are being done in the world to find an alternative method to overcome these problems. Organic farming follows using organic fertilizer to reduce the effect of the chemicals on both human beings and the environment.
1:34 Natural farming is another environmental friendly method. And this system, a natural farming system, we eliminate the using of all chemicals and we use the natural sources to provide the nutrients for the plant. When we talk about natural sources, the natural sources are available around the farm. So, no need to pay or buy something for the natural farm. They are all available. So, if we have a close look at conventional and natural farming, we will find some
2:23 We find some different things. High cost of production, low cost of production. Better quality, high productivity and better quality. So now we decide which one we want to use or which one we want to select. Natural farming or conventional farming? To consider all these things, I conducted an experiment to compare, to evaluate the plant performance under these three systems.
3:14 This is brief information about my experiment. All the things are there. As I mentioned, for the experiment, I used three different systems. The first is the natural science farming. And in natural science farming we follow all the natural principles. We introduced, we added IMO4 to the site, we treated the site with soil treatment, we treated the seedlings with seedling treatment and then we transplanted the plants on the beds.
4:08 During the crop growth, we applied natural fertilizer for the plant based on plant requirements. We observed the plant, we saw the plant, and then we decided what the plant needs. And based on plant needs, we applied the natural fertilizer for the plant. And for organic systems, we used organic fertilizer, and for conventional, we used chemical fertilizer. So this slide shows the tomatoes which are growing in different systems.
5:06 In the natural system we can see a lot of fruit, more than others. This table shows the plant height at different stages of the growth. And in the first stage of the growth we can see there is a significant difference between plant height. The highest plant height was recorded with the conventional and organic. That's why: because establishment of the plant in the natural farming system took time.
5:56 During this one month, we applied the treatment number 2, which has more nitrogen for the natural plants. and then they started the active growth, and after two months and three months they caught up with the conventional and organic. So here we can see there are no statistical differences between the plant height. But in the fourth stage of the growth, the natural plants performed better and the highest plant height was recorded with the natural plants.
6:48 This table is showing the number of leaves per plant. It's almost the same like plant height. I recorded the number of leaves per plant at four stages of the plant growth. And in the first stage and second stage, there are no statistically significant differences between the number of leaves per plant, but in the third stage and fourth stage, we can see there are significant differences between the plants regarding number of leaves per plant. And this is where you can see the fresh weight and dry weight of plant.
7:29 The highest fresh weight and dry weight was recorded with the natural, then organic and conventional. That's why: because the natural plant was healthy, they grew well, they produced a lot of leaves, stems and fruits, and the fresh and dry weight was higher with the natural than others. And in this table you can see the root length. When we apply IMOs, IMO number 4, to the soil, IMOs improve the soil condition. condition. When the soil condition is good, the plant grow better, the plant produce longer
8:19 root, so the longer root was recorded with the natural, and as well, the root volume was higher with the natural than others. And in this table we can see the chlorophyll a, chlorophyll b, total chlorophyll and total carotenoid content of plant. When plant have more chlorophyll a or b or total chlorophyll or carotenoid, that means plant is healthy, plant is happy. So here we can see the highest chlorophyll b, total chlorophyll, total carotenoid content was high with the natural. That means the natural plant was healthy, was happy, they
9:11 absorbed more sunshine, so they have more chlorophyll content. When the chlorophyll content is high with the plants, they increase the productivity of the plant. In this picture we can see the plants which are uprooted from different systems. The number of roots, root intensity. This is the yield parameters of the tomatoes which are growing in different systems.
9:57 So number of fruits per plant, total yield and marketable yield was high with the natural. That makes the natural system's productivity high: plant is healthy, plant is happy, plant will yield more for us. As I recorded the number of days taken for first harvesting, that's a good thing. We have earlier fruit from the plant. Here we can see almost one week difference between conventional and natural; natural produced earlier fruit.
10:46 That's because the natural plant doesn't receive more or excess nitrogen. When the plant receives excess nitrogen, they promote the vegetative growth. So they don't like to produce fruit. But the natural plant doesn't receive excess nitrogen, so they promote to produce fruit. And I realized the fruit set percentage was higher with the natural than other systems. In this table, we have the physiological disorders of the tomatoes. Blossom end rot is a very hard thing.
11:33 It makes the fruits unmarketable because of calcium deficiency. So in the natural, we have less blossom end rot of the fruit. That makes we have more marketable fruit from the natural. This is where we can see the insect incidence. When the plant is happy, when the plant is healthy, the insect doesn't like to come in. So in the natural, we have less insect incidence than others.
12:25 This table shows the insect severity. When the insect incidence is less, the severity is also less. So we have less insect severity in the natural. Apart from fruit parameters and yield parameters, we studied the quality parameters. The appearance of the fruit: the natural fruit was more acceptable for the customer. They accepted it better. So they got high mark. And the taste and Brix were also high with the natural fruit than others.
13:13 In this picture we can see the tomato fruit which is harvested from different systems: natural, organic and conventional. By this picture I come to the end of my presentation. Thank you so much. Thank you.