MORPHOLOGY AND YIELD OF TOMATO AS INFLUENCED BY VARIETIES AND PLANT GROWING MEDIA IN THE ROOFTOP GARDEN

Abstract

This experiment was carried out at the rooftop garden of the Department of Agricultural Botany of Sher-e-Bangla Agricultural University, Dhaka, Bangladesh to find the independent effects of varieties and plant growing media and the interaction effects between varieties and plant growing media on morphology and yield of tomato grown in the rooftop garden during the period from November 2018 to March 2019. The two factorial experiment was laid out in a Randomized Complete Block Design with three replications. Two factors are, Factor A - three varieties viz. V 1 (BARI Tomato 14), V 2 (BARI Tomato 15) and V 3 (BARI Tomato 2) and Factor B – four plant growing media viz. M 1 (Soil 95% + Cow dung 5% + Inorganic Fertilizer), M 2 (Soil 80% + Cowdung 15% + Vermicompost 5% + Inorganic Fertilizer), M 3 (Cocodust 60% +Vermicompost 40% + Inorganic Fertilizer + Perlite), M 4 (Cocodust 70% + Vermicompost 30% + Inorganic Fertilizer + Perlite). Data on different morphological and yield contributing characters and yield of tomato were recorded and analyzed statistically. The recorded data on different morphological, yield and yield contributing characters were significantly influenced by different varieties and plant growing media independently and by also their interactions. Considering varietal performance, V 1 (BARI Tomato 14), V 2 (BARI Tomato 15) gave the best performance than V 3 (BARI Tomato 2) most of the studied parameters. As variety, the plant growing media also showed significant variations to morphological characters and fruit yield of tomato. In case of interaction between different variety and plant growing media, plant height, number of leaves plant

1 , number of branches plant -1 , number of flowers plant -1 and number of fruits plant -1 were found the best result from V 2 M 2 treatment combination, though V 2 M 3 combination were very close to the best. This experimental results highlighted that the number of flowers plant -1 were highest in soil media than the soil less media and the rate of flower drop were also more in soil less than the soil media, But the fruit weight were significantly higher in soil less media than the soil media. The experimental results suggest that tomato fruit yield increased in all varieties with the application of organic fertilizers (cow dung & vermicompost) in the rooftop garden.