Effect of Ca and Mg on the yield and quality of tomato Lycopersicon esculentum L in the soils of Balh valley of Mandi district Himachal Pradesh

Abstract

Tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum L.) is one of the remunerative cash crops newlinefor small and medium scale farmers. Enhancement in the incorporation of primary nutrients newline(N, P and K) and minimizing the use of secondary (Ca, Mg and S) and micronutrients newlinereduced the yield of the tomato crop. Calcium and magnesium are the secondary nutrients play an newlineimportant role in development of crops. Calcium supplied in the low quantity results in the newlineappearance of browning and dieback symptoms on the growing tips of leaves. Blossom End Rot newline(BER) is the deficiency symptom which appears in the tomato crop due to the shortage of calcium. On newlinethe other hand, magnesium applied in low quantity results in excess starch, sugar and amino acid newlineaccumulation in leaves. Its deficiency also leads to breakdown of chlorophyll and reduction in newlinephotosynthetic electron transport chain. newlineIn the present research work the impact of foliar application of calcium and magnesium was newlinestudied when applied individually or in combination in the tomato crop. The field experiments were newlineundertaken during 2017 and 2018 in Mandi district of Himachal Pradesh to study the effect of newlinerecommended dose of NPK along with two levels of calcium (0.3 and 0.6 %) and three levels of newlinemagnesium (0.1, 0.2 and 0.4 %) in the tomato crop. The trials were laid in the randomized block newlinedesign (RBD) with three replications and fourteen treatments. The calcium chloride and magnesium newlinesulphate were used as the source of secondary nutrients calcium and magnesium. newlineThe significant improvement in growth and yield and its parameters, quality, nutrient content newlineand uptake of both leaves and fruits, economics and correlation in the tomato crop were recorded. The newlinedata in the treatment T13 with recommended dose of FYM and NPK along with calcium and newlinemagnesium at 0.6 and 0.2 % in treatment indicated the increase in the growth parameters viz. plant newlineheight (123.47 cm) and number of branches (6.72) with the percent increase of 20.65 and 24.21 % newlineover the control. newline