EFFECT OF DIFFERENT RATES OF NITROGEN AND PHOSPHOROUS APPLICATION ON THE GROWTH AND YIELD OF KARl TOMATO-2 (RATAN) (Lycoperskon esculentum. Mill)

Abstract

The experiment was conducted at the Research Farm of Sher-e-l3angla Agricultural University, Dhaka-1207. during November 2008 to March 2009 to evaluate the effect of nitrogen (N) and phosphorous (P) on the growth and yield component of BAR! tomato-2 (Ratan), is one of the high yielding varieties of indeterminate type. The experiment was laid out in a Randomized Complete Block Design (RCBD) with three replications of each fertilizers treatment combination. The treatments used were: four levels of nitrogen as No: 0 kg N/ha, N 100: 100 kg t N/ha. N150 : 150 kg N/ha and N 200 : 200 kg N/ha and four levels of phosphorous as P0: 0 kg P 205/ha, P50: 50 kg P 205Tha, P 100: lOU kg P 205!ha and p150: 150 kg P 205 /ha with 16 treatment combinations. Yield and yield contributing characters, N and P concentration in plant and post harvest soil were recorded. Plant height at 60 days after transplanting, number of branches per plant, number of flowers per plant, number of fruits of plant and fruit weight per plant increased significantly with increasing N level up to 150 kg N/ha, whereas fruit yield increased significantly up to 200 kg N/ha. All these parameters also increased significantly with increasing the level of P up to 150 kg P/ha. However, the treatment showed the maximum plant height at harvest (93.62 cm). On the other hand, the treatment combination N20oPI00 produced the maximum combination N 200? ISO number of flowers per plant (49.86), number of fruits per cluster (3.99), number of fruits per plant (38.30) fruit weight (2.5 kg/plant) and fruit yield (89.93 tlha). N and P concentrations in shoot and fruit were the highest in N 200P150 treatment. The treatment had no significant effect on pH of post harvest soil. However increasing the application of nitrogen increased soil total N and P content up to N 150 treatment. Application of P had not significant effect on total nitrogen but P 150 produced the highest P content in soil. N 200?150 combination had the highest N (0.119%) and P (44.77 ppm) concentration in plant.