EFFECT OF FERTILIZER ON THE INCIDENCE OF INSECT PESTS ON TOMATO

Abstract

The present study was conducted at the field laboratory of Sher-e-Bangla Agricultural University, Sher-e-Bangla Nagar, Dhaka during the period from December 2012 to April 2013 to find out the effect of fertilizers on the incidence of insect pests on tomato. The treatments were comprised of various manure and fertilizers and these were T1 = Recommended Dose (15 ton cow-dung + 400 kg urea + 250 kg TSP + 200 kg MP)/ha, T2 = Recommended Dose + 400kg urea/ha, T3 = Recommended Dose + 250kg TSP/ha, T4 = Recommended Dose + 200 kg MP/ha, T5 = Recommended Dose + (400 kg urea + 250 kg TSP + 200 kg MP)/ha, T6 = Control (No fertilizer). The experiment was laid out in Randomized Complete Block Design (RCBD) with three replications. The highest persent increase of aphid and fruit borer infestation over control was 35.10% and 7.07%, respectively observed T5 treated plot. Treatment T3 gave the best result by decreasing 28.02 % aphid population. Treatment T1, T4 and T2 also decreased 14.24%, 2.87% and 2.79% aphid population over control. Treatment T4 decreased the highest per cent (35.76%) fruit borer infested fruit over control. Treatment T1, T2, and T3 also reduced equal per cent of fruit infestation 28.69% over control. Considering the persent reduction of the number of whitefly over control, the best performence (43.30%) was observed in T5 treated plot and the lowest percent of reduction 1.72% was recorded in T2 treated plot. Treatment T3 showed the best performance in terms of percent reduction of jassid over control, that reduced 53.75% population of jassid having no significant variation to that of T2 (53.55%) but significantly different from others. The lowest percent reduction of jassid over control (17.34%) was recorded in T5 treated plot. The highest vallue was obtained from T3 which reduced 25.55% leaf miner over control that was significantly higher than all other treatments. The lowest percent reduction over control (5.03%) was recorded in T1 treated plot. Finally, the highest per cent increase of plant height, fruit per plant and yield increase over control was achieved in T5 treated plot resulting 15.83%, 76.40% and 62.55%, respectively. Whereas the lowest increase of plant height and fruit per plant over control showed 2.57% and 11.11% which was recorded in T1 treated plot and the lowest yield increase was recorded in T4 treated plot. All treatments ofdifferent doses fertilizers had great impact on major insect pests and yield of tomato.