Vol. 12, Issue 7 (2023)

Author(s):
Shreya Mondal and GK Ghosh

Abstract:
Tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum) is an important vegetable crop from Solanaceae family. It is an important source of Vitamin A, C and minerals like potassium, folate and vitamin E, soluble and insoluble dietary fibers. And major contributors of antioxidants such as carotenoids (especially, lycopene and β-carotene), phenolics, ascorbic acid. This experiment was laid out in Palli sikhsha bhavana, agriculture farm, Visva Bharati (Sriniketan) in two rabi seasons of 2018-19 and 2019-20 which consisted of 9 treatments of zinc and boron combination with different doses and application method replicated thrice in factorial randomized block design to improve plant growth, yield and quality and also decide the best possible treatment combination. Three treatments of Zinc viz. Z0 (no zinc), Zf (foliar application @0.5% ZnSO₄), Zs (soil application @6 kg/ha ZnSO₄) and three treatments of Boron viz. B0 (no boron), Bf (foliar application @0.25% borax), Bs (soil application @2 kg/ha borax) randomized among themselves. Results reveal that plant height and branch number was not affected with applied treatments but total chlorophyll content of leaves was improvised with boron soil application @2 kg/ha at 30 DAT and with boron foliar application @0.25% at 60 DAT. Treatment combination (T₈) of boron in soil @2 kg/ha and zinc as foliar @0.5% was superior for total yield (6.97 ton/ha) of tomato. Combined foliar application of boron @0.25% and zinc @0.5% (T₅) significantly increased number of fruits per plant (5) and fruit yield per plant (543.81 gm). There was no significant effect on fruit length and average fruit yield per plant. Quality attributes viz. Vitamin C (902.5 mg/g) and total sugar (2.10) were influenced significantly with zinc soil application @6 kg/ha (T₃₎ whereas Reducing sugar (2.11) of tomato was influenced by boron soil application @2 kg/ha (T₇). Thus, the results reveal that combined application of boron as foliar @0.25% and zinc soil @6 kg/ha would be the best recommended treatment to impact on plant growth, yield and quality of tomato fruits in red and lateritic soils of Birbhum district.