EFFECT OF SALT WATER ON GROWTH, YIELD, AND QUALITY OF HYDROPONICALLY GROWN TOMATO

Abstract

Tomatoes grow faster in hydroponics than they do in soil. Therefore a pot experiment was conducted at Sher-e-Bangla Agricultural University, Dhaka during the period from September-2019 to February-2020, to investigate the effect of salt water on growth, yield, and quality of hydroponically grown tomatoes. The experiment consisted of two factors, and followed completely randomized design (CRD) with three replications. Factor A: Tomato variety denoted as V: V 1 = BARI tomato-8, V 2 = BARI tomato-9, V = BARI tomato-10, and Factor B: Salt water denoted as S: S 0 = 0 ml L -1 3 + standard solution, S = 0.5 ml L -1 + standard solution, S 2 = 0.75 ml L -1 + standard solution and S + standard solution. Experimental result revealed that in among different varieties, cultivation of BARI tomato-8 (V ) in hydroponic system, had the highest number of flower clusters plant -1 1 (13.17), fruits cluster plant -1 (4.51), fruits plant -1 (50.00), fruit polar length (3.90 cm), fruit radial length (3.68 cm), individual fruit fresh weight (45.64 g), fruit dry weight (2.59 g) yield plant -1 (4.13 kg), volume (195.0 cc) and pH value (4.41). In case of different concentration of salt water application the highest yield plant (4.19 kg) was recorded in S 0 (0 NaCl ml L -1 + standard solution) treatment. In case of combination, BARI tomato-8 (V 1 1 ) along with (S 0 3 = 1 ml L ) no salt water application (0 NaCl ml L + standard solution) affected plant growth, yield and quality parameters, leading to the maximum plant yield (4.33 kg) than compared to other treatment combination. Therefore, it was concluded that the BARI toamto-8 variety in conjunction with non-salt water concentrations outperformed other treatment combinations for achieving higher yield and quality tomato production in a hydroponic cultivation system.