EFFECT OF CHEMICAL AND ORGANIC FERTILIZER ON GROWTH, YIELD AND PHENOLIC CONTENT OF TOMATO

Abstract

The experiment was conducted at Sher-e-Bangla Agricultural University, Dhaka from October 2018 to March 2019 to assess the effect of chemical and organic fertilizers on growth, yield and phenolic contents of tomato. The experiment consisted single factor: five fertilizer management practice with chemical and organic fertilizer (cowdung) viz. T 1 : Local Control, T 2 : 100% Chemical fertilizer, T 3 : 75% Chemical fertilizer +25% Organic fertilizer, T 4 : 50% Chemical fertilizer + 50% Organic fertilizer, T 5 : 100% Organic fertilizer. The experiment was laid out in Randomized Complete Block Design (RCBD) with three replications. Different fertilizer management practices influenced significantly on all of the studied parameters. Among the fertilizer management practices T 3 treatment

(75% Chemical fertilizer +25% Organic fertilizer) performed best in case of all of the vegetative (Plant height, number of leaves, number of branches) and reproductive characteristics (days to flowering, number of clusters, number flowers and fruits per cluster, number of fruits per plant). Fruit length, fruit weight was also observed highest from T 3 treatment and lowest from T 1 treatment. Maximum yield was obtained from T 3 treatment (3.30 kg/plant and 93.2 t/ha) and lowest was found from T 1 treatment (2.10 kg/plant and 76.8 t/ha). Phenolic content of tomato pulp and seed was highest for T 5

treatment (49.87 mg GAE/100g and 24.76 mg GAE/100g) and the lowest phenolic content was found from T 1 33.30 mg GAE/100g and 14.31 mg GAE/100g).