Tomato Plant Essay

AN ASSESSEMENT OF EFFECTIVENESS OF USING BANANA PEELS IN CONTROL OF APHID IN TOMATO IN UASIN GISHU COUNTY,ELDORET.

Tomato description and economic importance

Tomato (Solanum lycopercisum) is the second most important solanaceous vegetable crop after potato, it is usually used for local consumption and export in the Kenya. Tomato plant is believed to have originated from South America, Mexico where it is being used as food and it later spread throughout the world following the Spanish colonization of the Americans. About 161.8 million tones of tomatoes were provided in the world for export in 2012. China being the largest producer of tomato in the world for about one quarter of global output followed by India and USA (FAOSTAT, 2012).

In 2012,

This plant is prone to pest and disease which affect the quality yield of fruit. Some of the important pest ad diseases that have been affecting tomato plant lowering its production are as follows:

Cutworms- which are a tiny caterpillar that feed on young plant stems at night whereby they fall seedling on to the ground level.

Whiteflies – which feed on the plant juices and in turn leaving sticky residue which can become a host for sooty mold rot, knot nematode forming that interferes with the plant ability to take up nutrients. The other major pest which has been a trend to tomato production is the aphids.

Aphids can be almost any color but they are all tiny classes than 1/10’long pear-shaped and usually wingless, with soft bodies and mouths that can pierce right through, even the toughest leave and stem (Go pets America, 2011).Aphids are of three types namely, the grey aphid, black aphid and the green aphid usually suck the sap of the leave from below the leaves surface.

It usually does this by feeding on the lower surface and injuring them by sucking leaves deformed as they expand and may curl-down wards at the edges and become wrinkled puckered.