EFFECTS OF VARYING CONCENTRATIONS OF POTASSIUM ON THE GROWTH AND YIELD OF TOMATO PLANTS AT DROUGHT CONDITION

Abstract

ABSTRACT Drought is one of the most important limiting factors for agricultural crops and vegetable production all around the world. Potassium (K) is one of the vital elements required for plant growth and physiology. So, the experiment was conducted at Sher-e-Bangla Agricultural University, Sher-e-Bangla Nagar, Dhaka to determine effects of different dose of potassium in drought condition on growth and yield contributing characters of different tomato varieties. BARI Tomato 2, BARI Tomato 15 and BARI Tomato 16 were used in this experiment. Different levels of potassium applied at drought condition. The treatments were T 1 (control), T 2 (0. 4g K/pot + 200ml water/kg soil) and T 3 (0.9 g K/pot + 50 ml water/kg soil) applied at vegetative(40days), flowering (64 days) and fruiting stage (78 days) days after transplanting (DAT). The two factors experiment was laid out in Randomized Complete Block Design (RCBD) with 3 replications. The morphological growth, physiological and yield components of BARI tomato 15 showed the best performance with T 2 (0.4g K/Pot+200ml water/kg soil) treatment combination, then BARI Tomato 2 and BARI tomato 16. The lowest yield was showed in T 3 (0.9g K/Pot+50ml water/kg soil) treatment combination.