Utilization of effluent fish farms in tomato cultivation

• This work is focusing on effect of effluent flow rate of producing tomato plants.
• The nutrient consumption increases with increasing effluent flow rate.
• The water use efficiency increases with increasing effluent flow rate.

The main objective of this research is to study to which extent the content of nutrients in water farming is sufficient for growing tomato plants. The obtained results indicated that the nutrients consumption increased with increasing the flow rate. The root and shoot length increased with increasing effluent flow rate, when the effluent flow rate increased from 4.0 to 6.0 L h−1, the length of root and shoot significantly increased from 50.33 to 55.33 and 149.33 to 191.33 cm, respectively, at the end of growing period. The fresh and dry mass of shoot significantly increased from 998.01 to 1372.10 and 83.71 to 275.09 g plant−1, respectively, with increasing flow rate from 4.0 to 6.0 L h−1. The fresh and dry mass of root significantly increased from 388.07 to 423.91 and 30.37 to 38.98 g plant−1, respectively, with increasing flow rate from 4.0 to 6.0 L h−1. The fruit yield significantly increased from 1.06 to 1.37 kg plant−1 with increasing flow rate from 4.0 to 6.0 L h−1. The fruit mass and number of fruits increased from 75.07 to 81.32 g and 14.12 to 16.85 with increasing flow rate from 4.0 to 6.0 L h−1. The water use efficiency increased from 5.54 to 7.16 kg m−3 with increasing flow rate from 4.0 to 6.0 L h−1. Using the effluent fish farm could save fertilizers which equivalents 0.13 LE kg−1 fruits (130 LE t−1 fruits). Besides it is considered as an organic product which is safe for the human health.