Abstract

An experiment was conducted in 2018 and 2019 to evaluate effect of planting date on tomato fruit production under irrigation at Humbo District in Wolaita Zone, Ethiopia. Five planting dates with fifteen days intervals were evaluated for tomato fruit production such as planting at mid of September, at end of September, at mid of October, at end of October and at mid of November. The study was carried out using RCB design with three replications. Analysis of variance showed that there were significant differences among treatments. Planting at mid of September in 2018 yielded higher total fruits (22.58t ha-1) and low diseases pressure than other treatments, where as in the case of 2019, planting at end of September produced better fruit yield (51.11t ha-1) and low diseases pressure than other treatments. Based on this study, it can be concluded that planting tomato starting from mid to end of September yielded better than other planting times in the study area. Hence, farmers in the study area as well as in others with similar environmental conditions can be advised to adjust their planting practice of tomato to period of mid to end of September so as to get better tomato fruit yield.