Plant Gene and Trait 2025, Vol.16, No.3, 133-141 http://genbreedpublisher.com/index.php/pgt 135 Figure 1 Role of autophagy in the response to LN stress in tomato (Adopted from Cao et al., 2022) 3.3 Economic and environmental consequences Another problem with one-time fertilization is the low utilization rate, that is, the fertilizer is used but not absorbed, wasting money in vain (Du et al., 2020; Nie et al., 2021). If nitrogen flows into water, it will also deteriorate the water quality, cause eutrophication of water bodies and bring troubles to the environment (Du et al., 2020; Sun et al., 2023). Therefore, compared with one-time fertilization, applying nitrogen fertilizer in several installments can better improve the utilization rate, and also reduce costs and environmental impacts (Wabela, 2018; Nie et al., 2021; Wang et al., 2025). 4 Principles and Strategies of Split Nitrogen Application 4.1 Definition and general concepts of split application Applying nitrogen fertilizer in installments means applying it several times at different growth stages of tomatoes instead of applying it all at once. This is done to enable tomatoes to absorb nitrogen exactly when they need it, improve the utilization efficiency, and also reduce waste and pollution (Wabela, 2018; Ayankojo and Morgan, 2021; Wang et al., 2025). Studies have found that this method can increase the yield and quality of tomatoes more than single fertilization (Wabela, 2018).
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