EFFICACY OF BIOFERTILIZERS AND NITROGENOUS FERTILIZER ON GROWTH, YIELD AND QUALITY OF TOMATO (Lycopersicon esculentum Mill.) cv. 'Gujarat Tomato-1' IN CENTRAL GUJARAT AGRO-CLIMATIC CONDITION
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Date
2005
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AAU, Anand
Abstract
The present investigation entitled "Efficacy of biofertilizers and nitrogenous fertilizer on growth, yield and quality of tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum Mill.) cv. 'Gujarat Tomato-1' in Central Gujarat Agro-climatic condition" was conducted during rabi 2003 - 2004 at the Horticultural Farm of B. A. College of Agriculture, Anand Agricultural University, Anand. Field experiment was laid out in Randomized Block Design with 10 treatment combination and three replications consisting of three levels of nitrogen i.e. 25 kg N ha-1, 50 kg N ha-1 and 75 kg N ha-1 along with Azospirillum, Azotobacter and Azospirillum + Azotobacter. The results revealed that treatment T10 (75 kg N ha-1 + Azospirillum + Azotobacter) produced significantly maximum plant height and number of branches plant-1' followed by treatment T9 (50 kg N ha-1 + Azospirill um + Azotobacter). It was also observed that treatment T10 (75 kg N ha-1 + Azospirillum + Azotobacter) registered significantly the highest length and girth of fruits, average fruit weight, fruit yield plot-1 and fruit yield hectare-1 followed by treatment T9 (50 kg N ha-1 + Azospirillum + Azotobacter) while number of fruits plant-1 was at par with treatments T9 (50 kg N ha-1 + Azospirillum + Azotobacter), T6 (50 kg N ha-1 + Azotobacter), T7 (75 kg N ha-1 + Azotobacter), T4 (75 kg N ha-1 + Azospirillum), T3 (50 kg N ha-1 + Azospirillum) and Tg (25 kg N ha-1 + Azospirillum + Azotobacter). However, days taken to 50 percent flowering and days taken for first picking were found to be non - significant but there was a positive trend observed. Quality aspects like,pulp / juice ratio and ascorbic acid content were significantly influenced by treatment T10 (75 kg N ha-1 + Azospirillum + Azotobacter) followed by treatment T9 (50 kg N ha-1 + Azospirillum + Azotobacter) except TSS which was found to be non - significant. Looking to the economics of various treatments revealed that treatment T10 (75 kg N ha-1 + Azospirillum + Azotobacter) recorded the highest net realization as well as highest cost benefit ratio and it was closely followed by treatment T9 (50 kg N ha-1 + Azospirillum + Azotobacter). In nutshell, it can be concluded from the present study that treatment T10 (75 kg N ha-1 + Azospirillum + Azotobacter) recorded highest values in terms of growth, yield and quality attributes. However, performance of all the highest values in treatment T10 (75 kg N ha-1 + Azospirillum + Azotobacter) was at par with treatment T9 (50 kg N ha-1 + Azospirillum + Azotobacter) which is significantly superior over control i.e. treatment T1 (75 kg N ha-1 alone). Thus, it would be appropriate to use treatment T9 (50 kg N ha-1 + Azospirillum + Azotobacter) for potential yield and better quality of tomato cv. 'GT-l' as it reduces the use of chemical nitrogenous fertilizer by 33.33 % using microbial inoculants without affecting growth, yield and quality parameters.
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Keywords
HORTICULTURE, AGRICULTURE, EFFICACY