ABSTRACT

Solanum lycopersicum is an edible plant; fruits are often red, commonly known as a tomato. Its domestication and uses as food have been known to the indigenous peoples of Nigeria. As such this study was carried to to investigate how iron oxide nanoparticles affects the rhizospheric and endophytic microbes associated with tomato plant. Local variety of tomato seeds were obtained from International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) Ibadan. The study was carried out as a potted field experiment with four replicates. Iron oxide nanoparticles were prepared in the lab using extract from the leaves of Azardirachta indica (Neem tree) and ferric chloride (FeCl₃) as precursor. The results shows that 100 % had the highest absorbance (0.69), while 50% had the less value of 0.62. The isolated and identfied bacteria solates were Micrococcus spp., Staphylococcus spp., Pseudomonas spp., Staphylococcus spp. and Samonela spp. While fungi were Trichoderma spp., Aspergillus spp., Penicillium spp., Rhizopus spp., Pythium spp. and Fusarium spp. The best observable increase in plant height and number of leaves was seen at 25%; height ranged from 2.9±0.5 - 11.7±2.6, and number of leaves was from 6±0.5 - 8±1.3 respectively. This study has shown that biologically synthesized iron oxide nanoparticles on rhizospheric and endophytic microorganisms can significantly help in promoting S. lycopersicumgrowth performance.