Sodium Tallow Amphopolycarboxyglycinate-Stabilized Silver Nanoparticles Suppress Early and Late Blight of Solanum lycopersicum and Stimulate the Growth of Tomato Plants

Silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) are a well-known antibacterial agent in medicine. However, information on the effects of the AgNPs suppression of most important phytopathogenic agents is limited. Phytophthora blight and Alternaria blight are among the most dangerous plant pathogens in agriculture. The present study examined the effect of treatment of Solanum lycopersicum with aqueous dispersion of sodium tallow amphopolycarboxyglycinate-stabilized AgNPs at a concentration of 100 ppm on the growth, development, and productivity of tomato plants, as well as the dispersion’s protective properties against Phytophthora blight and Alternaria blight in the field conditions. The study revealed that the quadruple treatment of plants with AgNPs during the growing season increases the surface area of leaves (+41 cm2/plant) and consequently leads to an increase of 1.6 g/m2 per day in photosynthetic efficiency. As a result, the yield of tomato treated with AgNPs was higher than the yield of tomato in the control experiment—9.3 against 6.9 kg/m2. At the same time, the content of monosaccharides and vitamins contained in the tomato fruits has not changed.Increase in the productivity of tomato plants under the influence of nanosilver may have occurred due to the decrease in the number of plants stricken with late (Phytophthora infestans) blight and early (Alternaria solani) blight. It was revealed that nanosilver treatment causes an increase in the activity of antioxidant enzymes. The value of the antifungal activity of AgNPs was close to that of the reference standard for commercial fungicides.The study of plant tissues using ICP-AES showed no bioaccumulation of silver in tomato fruits; however, 2.05–3.33 μg/g was found in tomato leaves.Our results may be used for developing new plant protection products based on colloidal silver.