EFFECT OF ORGANIC MULCHES ON YIELD OF TOMATO

Abstract

A field experiment was conducted at the research field of Crop Physiology and Ecology, Hajee Mohammad Danesh Science and Technology University (HSTU), Dinajpur during the period from 1st October to December 2018 to investigate the effects of different mulching materials on the yield of tomato. The experiment consisted of 3 mulching treatments, viz. Water hyacinth, Ash and Straw and ii) Three varieties, viz. Maharaza, Bipul and BARI Tomato-4. The experiment was laid out in RCBD with 3 replications. There was a significant variation in plant height, number of leaves per plant and number of branch per pant of different tomato varieties with different mulches at different days after transplanting. In most cases, the tallest plant, highest number of leaves per plant and branch number per plant at different days after transplanting were observed in V3 (BARI Tomato-4) with M1 (Water hyacinth) mulch and the shortest plant, lowest number of leaves per plant and branch number per plant were observed in V1 (Moharaza) with M3 (Straw) mulch combination. The maximum days to flowering and fruit setting were observed in V2 (Bipul) with M1 (Water hyacinth) combination and the .minimum days to flowering and fruit setting were observed in V1 (Moharaza) with M3 (Straw). All the yield contributing parameters like number of fruit cluster, number of fruit per cluster, fruit length, individual fruit weight, yield per plant and yield per hectare of different tomato varieties with different mulches showed significant variation. In all cases, the best performance was observed in V3 (BARI Tomato-4) with M1 (Water hyacinth) combination and the .lowest performance was observed in V1 (Moharaza) with M3 (Straw) combition. BARI Tomato-4 growing with water hyacinth mulch produced produced the maximum yield (100 t/ha) in the present study.