Effect of integrated nutrient management strategies in tomato production

摘要

Currently, India is second largest country after China in fruit and vegetable production in the world. About 30 years ago, first green revolution was witnessed due to use of high yielding varieties, chemicals and fertilizers. Extensive use of chemicaland fertilizers with low doses of organic manures has resulted in deterioration of soil fertility and soil health as well. Biological routes of improving soil fertility and soil health for optimum crop production form vital component of Integrated Nutrient Management. These routes are operated through micro-organisms i.e., bio-fertilizers. Among non-symbiotic category of bio-fertilizers, Azotobacter, Azospirillum and Pseudomonas are well known for their broad spectrum utility in various crops. There are reports of usefulness of these biofertilizers in vegetables (Hegde et al., 3) but none in case of tomato crop. Therefore, the present investigation was carried out during 2002 and 2003 to study the effect of biofertilizers (Azotobacter, Azospirillum and Pseudomonas) applied alone, in combination with themselves, with 75 percent (75, 56.25 and 41.25 kg/ha) and 100 percent (100, 75 and 55 kg/ha) NPK plus full dose of FYM, i.e. 25 t/ha on tomato production having 20 treatment combinations. Biofertilizerswere applied as seedling treatment @ 1.5 kg/ha and mixed proportionately in combined applications. The seedlings were transplanted in the field on 10 and 13 April 2002 and 2003 respectively. The experiment was laid out in randomized block design in a plot size of 2.7 m x 2.0 m at a spacing of 90 cm x 30 cm using the cultivar Solan Vajr.