Effect of Organic Manures on Vegetative Growth and Flowering of Tomato (Solanum lycopersicum L.) cv. Pusa Ruby

Abstract

Tomato (Solanum lycopersicum L.) is one of the important vegetables crop grown worldwide due to its use in a number of dishes and high nutritive value. Most of the vegetables are consumed in fresh conditions but indiscriminate use of chemical fertilizers of pesticides in crop production leads toxic effect in produce which may cause various kinds of health hazards. Hence there is need to produce food free of contaminants through the use of organic inputs. Viewing these facts, a field experiment was conducted during the 2021-22 to analyze the effect of organic manures on vegetative growth and flowering of tomato cv. Pusa Ruby. Farmyard manure (FYM), vermicompost and poultry manures were applied as sole and in combinations to analyze the effect of different organic manures. The treatments applied for the research purpose were seven in number that is T1 (Control), T2 (FYM 24.0 t/ha), T3 (Vermicompost 6.0 t/ha), T4 (Poultry manure 2.0 t/ha), T5 (FYM 12.0 t/ha + Vermicompost 3.0 t/ha), T6 (FYM 12.0 t/ha + Poultry manure 1.0 t/ha), T7 (Vermicompost 3.0 t/ha + Poultry manure 1.0 t/ha). The present investigation clearly indicate that combined soil application of Vermicompost 3.0 t/ha + Poultry manure 1.0 t/ha (T7) gave the better effect on vegetative parameters viz. plant height (85.03 cm), number of branches per plant (8.4), number of leaves per plant (41.77), number of flowers per cluster (12.3) as compared to all other treatments. However, FYM and Poultry manure also significantly increase vegetative growth of tomato.