Vol. 12, Issue 11 (2023)

Author(s):
Abhishek D, Basavaraj Naik T, Veeranna HK, Thippesha D and Dhananjaya BC

Abstract:
A field experiment was carried out at ZAHRS, Navile, KSN University of Agricultural and Horticultural Sciences, Shivamogga, India, during Rabi 2022, to study the effect of biostimulant on growth, yield and nutrient uptake of tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum L.) under southern transition zone of Karnataka (zone 7). The experiment was laid out in Randomised Block Design with eleven treatments and replicated thrice. The treatments include viz., standard check (only package of practice) (T₁), foliar application of biostimulant @ 1 ml l^-1 (T₂), 2 ml l^-1 (T₃), 2.5 ml l^-1 (T₄), 3 ml l^-1 (T₅) and 4 ml l^-1 (T₆) each at pre-flowering, flowering and fruit development stages and soil application of biostimulant @ 10 kg ha^-1 (T₇), 15 kg ha^-1 (T₈), 17.5 kg ha^-1 (T₉), 20 kg ha^-1 (T₁₀) and 25 kg ha^-1 (T₁₁) each at transplanting and pre-flowering stage. The results revealed, significantly higher plant height (103.75 cm), number of branches per plant (30.93), leaf area index (1.77) and total dry matter (282.32 g plant^-1) at grand growth stage were recorded in foliar application of biostimulant @ 4 ml l^-1 (T₆) followed by soil application of biostimulant @ 25 kg ha^-1 (T₁₁). The yield traits of tomato viz., No. of fruits plant^-1 (43.62), mean fruit weight (125.16 g), fruit diameter (5.85 cm) and fruit yield per plant (4.37 kg) were higher in foliar application @ 4 ml l^-1 followed by soil application @ 25 kg ha^-1. Significant improvement in tomato fruit yield (71.76 t ha^-1) was recorded, which was 20.97 percent higher in T₆ over standard check. The uptake of nutrients also follows a similar trend. Foliar application @ 4 ml l^-1 recorded significantly higher total uptake of nitrogen (161.26 kg ha^-1), phosphorus (27.94 kg ha^-1) and potassium (235.10 kg ha^-1) at harvest.