Tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum Mill cv.VL-1) Seed Production through Organic Farming”

Abstract

Present investigation entitled ‘Tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum Mill cv.VL-1) Seed Production through Organic Farming’ was carried out with the objectives to produce the fruit of high nutritional quality in sufficient quantity, maintaining and increasing the long-term fertility of soil and to avoid all kinds of pollutions that may result from agricultural techniques. It was also an objective to use renewable resources in locally organized production systems and work with a close system with regard to organic matter and nutrient. The variety of tomato used in this study namely, VL Tamator -1, released in 2003 was collected from VPKAS, Almora, Uttarakhand. The experiment was laid out in Randomized Block Design with 13 treatments and 3 replications with the combination of organic and inorganic manure namely Farmyard Manure (FYM), Vermicompost, and inorganic fertilizers NPK during the two-year cropping seasons. In the first year, the maximum field emergence per cent, maximum average height of the plants, maximum average number of leaves per plant, maximum average thickness of stem, Maximum leaf area and maximum number of flowers per plant have been recorded in T2 (15t/h vermi-compost) in comparison to T0 used as a control. This T2 combination of 15 ton per hectare vermi compost exhibited the maximum number of fruit/plants, maximum number of seed per fruit and highest weight of fruit. It was recorded that T2 exhibited the maximum average length of roots per plant and plant yield. During the second year, similar observation has been recorded where maximum achievements were obtained in field emergence per cent, height of plant, number of leaves per plant and thickness of stem. The difference among the treatments found significant for leaf area, number of flowers per plant and number of fruit per plant in T2 (15t/h vermi-compost). Similarly, the maximum numbers of seed per fruit, weight of fruit, average diameter of roots per plant, plant yield (kg/plot) were recorded highest. With the maximum adoption of organic manures can lead in high yielding of above-mentioned variety to fulfill demand of the organic produce.