Vol. 12, Issue 8 (2023)

Author(s):
Ashwini Ambadi, S Sridhara, NS Mavarkar, S Pradeep, BC Dhananjaya and TM Soumya

Abstract:
A field test was carried out at the Centre for Climate Resilient Agriculture, Shivamogga during the 2020 kharif growing season on red sandy loam soil to know tomato growth influenced by mulching materials and biostimulants. The experiment was laid out in factorial randomized complete block design consisting of four mulching materials (M₁: Pongamia leaves @ 4 t ha^-1, M₂: Polyethene mulch, M₃: Paddy straw @ 10 t ha^-1 and M₄: No mulch) and three biostimulants (N: Nano nitrogen @ 4 ml lit^-1, B: Brassinolide @ 5 ml lit^-1 and C: Control) with three replications in open field conditions. The experimental results reveal that among the mulching materials paddy straw at 10 t ha^-1 was found to be significantly superior to other mulching materials in terms of plant height (157.98 cm), number of leaves (87.10), stem diameter (2.07 cm), number of flower clusters (33.89) and total number of flowers (230.89) compared to control. Among biostimulants, brassinolide at 5 ml lit^-1 foliar spray produced noticeable differences in higher plant height (157.04 cm), number of leaves (80.23), stem diameter (2.03 cm), number of flower clusters (32.43) and total number of flowers (224.42) compared to control was observed. Paddy straw is used as mulching materials at 10 t ha^-1 with brassinolide biostimulant at 5 ml lit^-1 combination was found to be the best treatment compared to all other treatments.