RESPONSE OF TOMATO TO DIFFERENT PLANT GROWTH REGULATORS

Abstract

An experiment was carried out at the research farm of Sher-e-Bangla Agricultural University, Dhaka, Bangladesh during the period from November 2017 to March 2018 to study the response of tomato to different plant growth regulators. The experiment consisted of seven (7) treatments viz. (1) T = Control, (2) T 2 = 20 ppm Gibberellic Acid (GA 3 ), (3) T = 100 μM Salicylic Acid (SA), (4) T 4 = 10 μM Methyl Jasmonate (MeJA), (5) T 3 5 = 20 ppm GA + 100 μM SA, (6) T 6 = 20 ppm GA 3 + 10 μM MeJA and (7) T = 100 μM SA + 10 μM MeJA. The experiment was laid out in Randomized Complete Block Design (RCBD) with five replications. Results revealed that the treatment, T 7

(20 ppm GA ) showed the highest plant height (81.63 cm) but the highest number of leaves plant 3 -1 (53.58) and SPAD value (53.08) were obtained from the treatment, T 6 (20 ppm GA + 10 μM MeJA) at 65 days after transplanting (DAT).The lowest values of this parameter were found with control (T 3 ) treatment. The highest numbers of flower cluster -1 (6.78), number of fruits cluster -1 (4.54) were observed from the treatment, T 5 (20 ppm GA + 100 μM SA). Separately, the highest number of flower cluster plant (9.77), fruit diameter (15.02 cm), single fruit weight (51.86 g), number of fruits plant

(36.40), fruit weight plant -1 (kg) (1.90 kg), fruit weight plot -1 (16.76 kg) and fruit yield ha -1 (69.85 t) were found from the treatment, T 6 -1 3 (20 ppm GA + 10 μM MeJA). The lowest number of flower clusters plant -1 (6.75), number of flower cluster -1 (5.55), fruit length (7.63 cm) and fruit diameter (11.70 cm), number of fruits plant -1 (30.25), fruit weight plant -1 (1.56 kg), fruit weight plot

(13.91 kg) and fruit yield ha -1 (57.94 t) were observed from the treatment, T

(Control). Therefore, these experimental results concluded that GA along with MeJA gave the highest fruit yield of tomato than sole application of GA or together application of GA along with SA under the edaphic and climatic conditions of Sher-e-Bangla Agricultural University (SAU). 3 3 3 1 3 3 1 2 -1 -1 1