Potentiality and efficiency of some agro-bio treatments on different tomato genotypes

Tomato (Solanum lycopersicum L.) productivity and processing quality are often impaired by soil nutrient depletion, excessive mineral fertilization, and environmental stresses, leading to yield decline and poor fruit traits. Overreliance on synthetic fertilizers deteriorates soil structure and microbial diversity, whereas sustainable agro-biological inputs, such as organic amendments and natural biostimulants, offer environmentally friendly alternatives to boost growth and quality. To evaluate the efficacy of selected agro-biological foliar treatments—seaweed extract, vermicompost tea, compost tea, and chitosan nanoparticles—in combination with different fertilization systems (mineral NPK, effective microorganisms [EM], and vermicompost [VC]) on vegetative growth, in four commercial tomato hybrids for processing. A split-split plot design with three replications was applied. Four commercial tomato hybrids (G1–G4) were grown under three soil fertilization regimes and five foliar treatments: Control (distilled water) (DW), seaweed extract (SW) (0.5%), vermicompost tea (VcT) (8 mL L⁻¹), compost tea (CT) (10 mL L⁻¹), and chitosan nanoparticles (ChNPs) (0.5%). Data on vegetative growth, i.e., stem length (cm), number of leaves/plant, number of branches/plant, leaf area/plant (cm²), fresh weight of shoots (g), dry weight of shoots (g) and chlorophyll content were recorded. Over two seasons, stem length peaked in ChNPs × VC with G2) 150.45 cm and (139.23 cm) respectively, while the lowest was seen in Control × VC (56.67 cm, with G4). Leaf number was highest under ChNPs × EM and ChNPs × VC (125.33 leaves/plant, for G1, G2) versus 47.67 in Control × EM with G4. Fresh vegetative weight was maximal in NPK × Vct (1157.67 g for G2) and minimal in Control × EM (475 g to G1), dry vegetative weight was maximal in VcT × NPK × G2 (196.00 g,) and minimal in Control × EM × G1 (52.33 g,), The maximum number of branches per plant (10.00 branches/plant) was recorded in hybrids G1, G2, G3, and G4 under the treatments ChNPs × VC, ChNPs × NPK, SW × NPK, VcT × VC, VcT × NPK, and SW × EM, whereas the lowest value (4.67 branches/plant in G1) was observed under the Control × EM treatment, leaf area was maximal in SW × NPK (562.143 cm2 for G4) and minimal in Control × EM (381.233 cm2 with G1), chlorophyll content was maximal in SW × NPK (55.423 to G4) and minimal in Control × VcT (40.12 for G1).