Impact of tannery effluent on growth of tomato plants

Abstract

An experiment was conducted to study the effect of tannery effluent on Tomato (Lycopersicum esculantum Mill.) plants raised in soil-pot culture condition and treated with different percent of tannery effluent i.e. nil (control), 20, 40, 60, 80 and 100. Maximum dry matter yield and ascorbic acid content were observed at 60 percent level in the tops of both 30 and 90 days old tomato plants, maximum dry matter yield in leaves of 90 days and at the 20 percent level of tannery effluent in fruits of 100 days old tomato plants. Maximum chlorophyll content and peroxidase activity was observed at the 40 percent level of tannery effluent in leaves of both 30 and 90 days old tomato plants, maximum peroxidase activity in tops of 90 days old tomato plants. As compared to control, all the levels of tannery effluent showed highly significant (P=0.01) increase in catalase activity of tops of both 30 and 90 days and leaves of 90 days old plants.