RESPONSES OF TOMATO TO DIFFERENT PLANT GROWING STRUCTURES AND COMPOSITION OF GROWING MEDIA IN ROOFTOP GARDEN

Abstract

This experiment was carried out at the rooftop garden of the Department of Agricultural Botany, Sher-e-Bangla Agricultural University (SAU), Dhaka1207, Bangladesh from

October 2017 to March 2018 to evaluate the response of tomato to different plant growing structures and composition of growing media in the rooftop garden. The experiment had two factors, factor A- two plant growing structures, viz., S 1 = Plastic pot, S 2 = Earthen pot and factor B- six different plant growing medium viz. M 0 =Soil 100% (w/w) + inorganic fertilizer (IF)/(control), M 1 =Soil 80% (w/w) + 20% cowdung (w/w) + IF, M 2 =Soil 70% (w/w) + 30% cowdung (w/w) + IF, M 3 =Soil 90% (w/w) + 10% vermicompost (w/w) + IF, M 4 =Soil 80% (w/w) + 20% vermicompost (w/w) + IF, M 5 =Soil 80% (w/w) + 10% cowdung (w/w) + 10% vermicompost (w/w) + IF. The factorial experiment was laid out in a Completely Randomized Design (CRD) with four replications. The experimental results such as morphological and yield contributing characters and yield of tomato significantly influenced by different plant growing structures and various composition of plant growing media and also their combination. Considering plant growing structures, the plastic pot (S 1 ) gave the higher plant height, number of leaves plant , branch plant -1 , flower clusters plant -1 , flowers plant -1 , fruit length and fruit breadth. The maximum yield of fruits plant -1 (1.69 kg) was also obtained from plastic pot and the minimum yield of fruits plant -1 (1.46 kg) was obtained from earthen pot (S 2 ). The Soil 80% (w/w) + 10% cowdung (w/w) + 10% vermicompost (w/w) + IF marked as (M 5 ) had the highest plant height, number of leaves plant -1 , branch plant -1 , flower clusters plant -1 -1 , flowers plant , fruit length and fruit diameter. The maximum yield of fruits plant (2.17 kg) was recorded from the soil 80%(w/w) + 10% cowdung(w/w) + 10% vermicompost(w/w) ) + IF noted as (M 5 ) whereas the minimum yield was found from control or M 0 (Soil 100% (w/w) + inorganic fertilizers conditions. The highest yield of fruits plant -1 (2.15 kg) was obtained from the treatment combination of S 1 M 5 (plastic pot along with the soil 80% (w/w) + 10% cowdung (w/w) + 10% vermicompost (w/w) + IF), which is consistent of other parameters such as morphological and yield contributing characters of this study. The lowest yield of fruits plant -1 (0.99 kg) was obtained from the treatment combinations of S 2 M 0 (earthen pot along with the soil 100% (w/w) + inorganic fertilizer /control) which is dependable to other characters of this study. This experimental results suggest that plastic pot along with soil 80% -1 -1 (w/w) + 10% cowdung (w/w) + 10% vermicompost (w/w) + IF be able to increase the fruit yield of BARI tomato14 for rabi season in the rooftop garden under the climatic conditions of SAU.