EFFECT OF HUMIC ACID ON GROWTH, YIELD AND QUALITY OF TOMATO VARIETIES UNDER SALINE CONDITION

Abstract

A pot experiment was conducted in the “Field Laboratory of Plant Stress Management” in the Horticulture farm of Sher-e-Bangla Agricultural University, Dhaka, during the period from October 2016 to March 2017. The two factors experiment was laid out in Complete Randomized Design with three replications. Factor A is three tomato varieties viz. V = BARI Tomato 8, V 2 = BARI Tomato 14 and V 3 1 = BINA Tomato 4 and factor B is humic acid treatment viz. H 0 = No humic acid (control), H = 50 ppm soil application+50 ppm foliar spray and H 2 1 = 100 ppm soil application+100 ppm foliar spray. The total treatment combinations were (3×3) 9 and 8 dS/m salinity maintained for all the pots. The experimental results exhibited that humic acid treatment significantly affected growth, yield and quality parameters of tomato. The highest plant height (80.55 cm), number of fruits per plant (63.22) and fruit yield per plant (3.55 kg) were found from V under 8 dS/m. In case of humic acid, the highest plant height (84.00 cm), number of fruits per plant (63.33) and fruit yield per plant (3.46 kg) were recorded from H 2 . Regarding the combined effect, the highest plant height (87.33 cm), number of fruits per plant (75.00) and fruit yield per plant (3.63 kg) were found from V 2 2 H treatment. So the BARI Tomato-14 with 100 ppm soil application+100 ppm foliar spray of 2 humic acid showed better performance for growth, yield and quality of tomato under 8 dS/m saline condition.