Use of sudangrass and early soil testing to optimize nitrogen management for processing tomatoes

Fine-tuning nitrogen fertilizer rates and the use of a winter cover crop in a processing tomato rotation can minimize the negative environmental impacts from N application without affecting economic yields. This experiment evaluated tomato yield and quality in response to N fertilizer rates and the use of sudangrass as a cover crop to scavenge residual soil nitrogen. A presidedress soil nitrate test was employed to determine a critical soil nitrate value to be used in the development of N fertilizer recommendations.; Soil sampling was carried out for tomato and sudangrass. Tomato and leaf nitrate analysis was performed and Sudangrass biomass, tomato canopy cover, yield and quality factors were measured.; Significant differences were found in tomato yield. It was concluded that the use of a sudangrass cover crop in a tomato rotation can effectively scavenge residual soil nitrate and improve N utilization by the tomato.