FERTIGATION MANAGEMENT FOR TOMATO
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Date
2001
Authors
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Publisher
Mahatma Phule Krishi Vidyapeeth, Rahuri.
Abstract
Tomato is one of the important vegetable crop grown in this
region. Shortage of irrigation water forced the farmers to adopt drip
method of irrigation. . With the introduction of drip method
farmers noticed it's effect on improved quality of the fruits along with
higher yields. Recently the water soluble fertilizers are introduced in the
market. This allowed the application of fertilizers through drip irrigation
system in more number of splits, which improved the water use efficiency
and fertilizer use efficiency. However the cost of these water soluble
fertilizer is comparatively higher than the straight fertilizers. The field
experiment was therefore under taken with the specific objective to find
out the effect of water soluble fertilizers levels on the yield of tomato, FUE
and WUE along with the effect of fertigation on field performance of drip
system. The different levels of recommended dose of NPK nutrients for
tomato were applied in the form of commercially available water soluble
fertilizers (WSF) along with the irrigation water through drip irrigation
system as well as the straight fertilizers by band placement. Thus the study
included four treatments and five replications viz., Tj = 100% of recommended dose , T2 = 80% of recommended dose, T3 = 60% of
recommended dose through WSF through drip irrigation and T4 = 100% of
recommended dose of straight fertilizer by band placement.
The treatmentwise observations on discharge of emitters were
recorded to estimate emission uniformity (initial and periodical), extent of
clogging, types of salt and their concentrations to asses the effect of
fertigation on system performance. Necessary biometric observation along
with data on fruit yield, total water applied were recorded in each treatment
to estimate water use efficiency and fertilizer use efficiency.
The field emission uniformity (EU) values were found in the
range of 91.95% to 92.48% with an average value of 92.20% for entire
system.
The maximum average reduction in initial discharge was
found as 9.60% due to water quality in treatment T4 and 5.79% average
reduction in treatment T3 due to fertigation.
The maximum average reduction in the emission uniformity
(EU) was found as 3.99% due to water quality in treatment T4 and 3.61%
average reduction in treatment T3 due to fertigation.
Therefore the source of water which falls under C3S1 class
which was mainly responsible for clogging of emitters due to precipitates
of dissolved salts like carbonates, bicarbonates, chlorides and sulphates of
calcium and magnesium. It was found that the acidic nature of fertilizer
kept the problem of clogging at lower level in all the fertigation treatments.
From the tables and graphs of biometric observations viz.,
plant height, diameter of fruit, weight of fruit, number of fruits per plant, it
was observed that the 80% of the recommended dose through WSF (T2)
gave better results over the other treatments under study. The maximum tomato fruit yield (85.97 t/ha)was obtained in
the treatment of 80% of recommended dose through WSF (T2). It was
16.05% higher over all the control treatment of straight fertilizer (T4)
resulting saving 20% of fertilizer.
The maximum water use efficiency (13.06 q/ha-cm) was
observed in the treatment-80% of recommended dose through WSF (T2)
while fertilizer use efficiency (168.62) was observed maximum in the
treatment, 60% of RD of WSF (T3).
In the control treatment (T4) the B : C ratio was maximum
(4.12). However the maximum net income of Rs. 247090 was obtained
from the treatment T2 (80% of recommended dose through WSF).
The overall findings of the study indicated that when the
quality of irrigation water was of C3S1 class and water soluble fertilizer
which are acidic in nature the system performance in terms of per cent
reduction in initial discharge and field emission uniformity was found
influenced due to water quality and not due to furtigation. Further 16%
higher yields were recorded due to fertigation along with saving of 20%
quantity of fertilizer (T2), when compared to conventional method of
fertilizer application (T4).
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