Effect of micronutrients on growth, yield and quality of tomato (Solanum lycopersicum L.)

Abstract

The experiment was conducted at Department of Horticulture, Naini Agricultural Institute, Sam Higginbottom University of Agriculture, Technology and Sciences, Prayagraj during the rabi season 2023 - 2024. The experiment was laid out in randomized block design with three replications, and the study consists of thirteen treatment combinations including control. The best treatment was T12 (NPK-25 g/m² + micronutrients -4 g/L) which shows highest values in all the parameters viz., plant height (cm) 120 DAS (59.56 cm ), number of leaves/plant 120 DAS (67.56), number of branches/plant 120 DAS (12.53), days of 50% flowering (71.93), days to first flowering (55.81), days of first harvesting (110.60), no. of flower/cluster (7.49) , no. of fruiting cluster/plant (6.44), no. of fruits/cluster (6.53) fruit set% (86.87%), fruit weight (61.18 g), no. of fruit/plant (106.19), fruit yield per plant (2.02 kg), fruit yield/ha (13.18 t/ha), TSS (5.20 °brix), Lycopene content (6.43 100mg/kg), Hardness (0.82 kg/inch2), Vitamin C content (35.33 mg/1000 gm). Increased flowering, fruit yield and quality might be due to the increased absorption of nutrients when given as foliar application.