Saikia, AnantaKumari, Varsha2024-07-112024-07-112023https://krishikosh.egranth.ac.in/handle/1/5810211795A field experiment was conducted at the Experiment Farm, Department of Horticulture, Assam Agricultural University, Jorhat during the year 2022 to study the possibility of cultivating tomato on soilless growing media under a naturally ventilated polyhouse. The experiment was laid out in a randomized block design with 5 treatments and 4 replications. The treatments comprised of media containing cocopeat, vermiculite, perlite, sand and loam soil in various proportions. The study revealed that tomatoes were luxuriant on Loam soil: Sand: Vermicompost (1:1:1) medium with maximum plant height (140.68 cm), primary branches (6.19), plant fresh weight (177.90 gm), fruit weight (70.80 gm), crop duration (124.56 days), shorter duration to flowering (42.5 days), TSS (5.65 °Brix), minimum bacterial wilt infection (6.19 %) with final higher residual N, P, K contents of 2.58, 2.51, 2.64% respectively in the spent growing medium. Maximum plant dry weight (25.80 gm), fruit set (48.24%), fruits/cluster (8.36), fruits/plant (71.74), yield/plant (4.88 kg), total yield (66.26 q/500sqm), ascorbic acid (40.07 mg/100gm) and harvesting latitude (43.08 days) was recorded by Cocopeat: Sand: Vermicompost (5:2:3) medium, whereas the maximum days to first harvest (83.75 days) and blossom end rot incidence (45 %) were recorded by Cocopeat: Vermiculite: Perlite (3:1:1). Chlorophyll content (2.50 mg/100gm) and fruit volume (73.10 cc) were highest in Sand: Vermicompost (1:1). Flowers per cluster (3.91) and shelf life (12 days) were maximum in Cocopeat: Vermicompost (1:1). The economic analysis indicated that is Loam soil: Sand: Vermicompost (1:1:1) gave a maximum benefit-cost ratio of 2.20. These findings suggest that Cocopeat: Sand: Vermicompost (5:2:3) medium may be the preferred choice for optimizing growth and yield, although Loam soil: Sand: Vermicompost (1:1:1) is economically advantageous.EnglishThesis