Book of Extended summaries ISDA

International Conference on Reimagining Rainfed Agro-ecosystems: Challenges & Opportunities
during 22-24, December 2022 at ICAR-CRIDA, Hyderabad
leaves plant -1 and plant fresh weight at the critical stages of tomato plant growth viz., vegetative,
flowering, fruiting and harvesting stages.
Results
The plant height, number of leaves plant -1 and plant fresh weight increased across the treatments
at all stages of growth. Among the treatments, 1:1:1NPK fertigation @ 100% RDN+ Ca+ B (T8)
recorded the highest plant fresh weight and plant heightat all the growth stages. Plants in this
treatment also had maximum number of leaves plant -1 during the flowering, fruiting and harvest
stages. The least growth of plant at all growth stages of tomato was observed in the absolute
control (T9).
The results indicated that the plant growth was significantly influenced by the nutrient ratios as
well as method of fertilizer application. The fertigated plants had higher plant growth than those
in the control (T1 and T9). The enhanced growth might be due to the increased cell division and
elongation at higher levels of N and due to the inclusion of boron and calcium. The present
findings are also in agreement with the findings ofSolaimalai et al. (2005), Aruna et al.
(2007),Haque et al. (2011), Sajad et al. (2018) and Kale et al. (2019) who reported increased
plant growth due to better utilization of applied nutrients and water by the plants under drip
fertigationas compared to the conventional method of irrigation.
Conclusion
The study revealed thatamong the methods of fertilizer application employed, drip
fertigationwith water soluble fertilizer based on crop growth stage was found to be the most
effective, which had a pronounced and significant effect on the growth of tomato plant as
compared to soil application of fertilizer. Supply of 1:1:1 NPK (100% RDN) together with Ca
+B (T8) was the best cost-effective nutrient combination for improved growth of tomato crop
under fertigation. The roles and importance of calcium and boron in tomato plant growth were
also proved by the results of this experiment. The inclusion of calcium and boron in the
fertigation schedule may be henceforth pondered. The results also indicated that the stage wise
application of nutrients through fertigation required lesser quantity of nutrients. Thus, in practice,
it helps to avoid the unnecessary application of fertilizers, again saving nutrients and money and
also maintains the soil environmental quality and health.
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