Studies on the effect of foliar application of plant growth regulators on growth yield and fruit quality traits in tomato Solanum lycopersicum L under protected condition

Abstract

The present investigation entitled Studies on the effect of foliar application newlineof plant growth regulators on growth, yield and fruit quality traits in tomato newline(Solanum lycopersicum L.) under protected condition was conducted under insect newlineproof net house during two consecutive rabi seasons 2019-20 and 2020-21 at newlineVegetable Research Farm, Kalyanpur, Department of Vegetable Science, Chandra newlineShekhar Azad University of Agriculture and Technology, Kanpur, India to find out the newlineeffect of PGRs and their spray schedules. The experiment was laid out in Factorial newlineRandomized Block Design (FRBD) with 27 treatment combinations and replicated newlinethrice. The experiment comprised nine levels of plant growth regulators viz., GA3 at50 newlineppm (P1), GA3 at75 ppm (P2), GA3 at100 ppm (P3), NAA at20 ppm (P4), NAA at30 newlineppm (P5), NAA at40 ppm (P6), 4-CPA at20 ppm (P7), 4-CPA at30 ppm (P8) and 4- newlineCPA at40 ppm (P9) and three spray schedules viz., at 30 and 45 DAT (I1 ), at 30, 45 newlineand 60 DAT (I2 ) and at 30, 45, 60 and 75 DAT (I3 ). The tomato hybrid NS- 4266 newlinewas used in experiment. Results of the experiment revealed that the application of newlineGA3 at 75 ppm recorded significantly highest plant height (327.28 and 315.38 cm), newlinestem girth (3.23 and 3.28 cm), internodal length (17.16 and 18.15 cm), no. of fruit newlineclusters per plant (13.29 and 13.94), no. of fruits per cluster (13.30 and 14.21), no. of newlinefruits per plant (76.74 and 77.48), average fruit weight (88.92 and 88.90 g), equatorial newlinediameter of fruits (7.11 and 7.06 cm), polar diameter of fruits (6.23 and 6.19 cm), fruit newlineyield per plant (12.22 and 13.29 kg), fruit yield per 1000 m2 (258.47 and 262.41 q), newlinemoisture content in fruits (94.98 and 97.99 %), flesh thickness (6.32 and 6.32 mm), newlineshelf life (17.38 and 17.34 days) and ascorbic acid (23.82 and 25.08 mg) while, the newlineminimum values of dry matter content (4.85 and 4.99 %) and TSS (3.57 and 3.56 newlineºBrix) were found with the this treatment during both the years. The significantly newlineearliest flowering (31.09 and 31.54 days), fruiting (40.35 and 40.38 days)