Growing of off-season tomato in high tunnel and its nutritional value augmentation with integrated nutrients management

Abstract

Tomato is an important vegetable crop which provides approximately 40% of the daily recommended vitamin C and vitamin A, which supports human health. The experiments were laid out in a Completely Randomized Design (CRD) having four treatments and four time repetition under high tunnel. Nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P) and potassium (K) fertilizers were applied at the rate of 60:60:60 kg/ha or 1:1:1 to T₁, T₂ and T₃ after each 10, 20 and 30 day’s interval while Zn (5 kg/ha) was applied as a basal dose. The highest marketable yield was observed for T₂ after each 20 days of NPK application. Maximum Grad-A fruit among the treatments was recorded for T₁, Grade-B for T₂ & T₃ and Grade-C for T₀. Highest density was recorded for T₂, % moisture for T₀, maximum chlorophyll content in leaves was recorded for T₂ while highest shelf life was noted for T₁, T₂ and T₃ except T₀. The fruit and straw of tomato was analyzed to determine N, P and K (%) by using standard protocol. Among all the treatments highest N, P and K in fruit was observed for T₁. In case of straw maximum N was observed for T₁ whereas high level of P and K was recorded for T₂. Similarly the total NPK uptake were in the order as: T₁ > T₂ > T₃ >T₀, respectively. Experiential findings revealed that application of NPK after each 20 days are the suitable interval to get high marketable yield and highly bio-fortified and quality tomato crop.

Keywords:

• Tomato
• fertilization
• fruit grading
• chlorophyll content
• fruits size