TOMATO CULTIVATION DURING THE EARLY ESTABLISHMENT PERIOD OF MORINGA PLANTATION

Abstract

The experiment was carried out at Agroforestry Field Laboratory, Sher-e-Bangla Agricultural University, Dhaka−1207 during the period from October 2018 to January 2019 to investigate tomato cultivation during the early establishment period of Moringa plantation. The experiment consisted of four treatments viz., T 1 (30 cm distance from the tree base), T 2 (40 cm distance from the tree base), T 3 (50 cm distance from the tree base) and T 4 (Open field as control). Experiment was laid out in Randomized Complete Block Design (RCBD) with four replications. In case of growth parameters, the highest plant height of Tomato (71.83 cm) and number of branches per plant of Tomato (8.34) were observed in control condition (T 4 ) but in tree-crop association, the highest plant height (69.49 cm) and number of branches per plant (7.00) were recorded in T 3 treatment whereas the lowest result was observed from T 1 treatment with plant height (49.59 cm) and number of branch per plant (4.33). Regarding canopy spreading of Moringa tree, the highest spreading (N/S = 225.0 cm and E/W 240.0 cm) was found from treatment T 3 and in T 2 canopy spreading were (N/S = 205.00 cm and E/W = 185.00 cm) whereas the lowest canopy spreading (N/S = 180.00 cm and E/W = 173.30 cm) was found from T 1 treatment. In terms of yield contributing parameters and yield, with tree-crop interaction T 3

showed the lowest days to 1 st flowering and T 4 showed the lowest

days (64.33 days) to 1 st harvest whereas the highest days to flowering and days to 1 harvest was achieved from T 1 treatment (35.67 and 70.33 days, respectively). The highest fruit diameter (6.17 cm), number of fruits per plant

(29.67), fruit yield per plant (2367.07 g), individual fruit weight (81.91 g), fruit yield per plot

(9.09 kg) and fruit yield per ha (42.08 t) was also found control treatment T 4 but under tree-crop interaction, the highest fruit diameter (5.79 cm), number of fruits per plant (26.33), fruit yield per plant(2014.52 g), individual fruit weight (77.16 g), fruit yield per plot (7.78 kg) and fruit yield per ha (34.16 t) were obtained from T 3 treatment whereas the lowest fruit diameter (4.42 cm), number of fruits per plant (14.00), fruit yield per plant (933.82 g), individual fruit weight (66.42 g), fruit yield per plot

(3.61 kg) and fruit yield per ha (16.05 t) were obtained from T 1 treatment. Distance between tree and crop had strong positive correlation with almost all parameters. Estimated regression line, based on observed data points, predicted optimum distance of Tomato plot from one year old Moringa tree would be approximately 80 cm for maximum Tomato yield (44.29 t/ha) in Moringa based Agroforestry system.