Optimising Seed Quality of Tomato with Naphthyl Acetic Acid (NAA) Foliar Spray and Training System

Abstract

The present study was conducted in the Department of Seed Science and Technology at Dr Yashwant Singh Parmar University of Horticulture and Forestry, Solan, Himachal Pradesh, during the summer of 2024. The research aimed to examine the effects of NAA as a foliar spray (at concentrations of 0, 25, 50, and 75 ppm) and various training systems (two-stem, four-stem, and no training) on the seed quality attributes of indeterminate tomato cv. Solan Lalima. Foliar sprays were applied at 30 days after transplanting and at 50% flowering. Tomato fruits were harvested upon reaching red ripeness, and seeds were extracted through fermentation methods. Seed quality parameters were assessed under laboratory and observations were noted. The experimental results indicate that spraying tomato plants with 50ppm NAA along with retention of two-stem yielded seeds of superior quality viz., increased 1000-seed weight (3.52g), longer seedlings (18.70), greater seedling dry weight (21.10 mg), improved seed vigour indices (SVI-I:1655.60 & SVI-I-1867.50), accelerated germination (23.31), along with reduced EC values of seed leachates (4.36).  Also, this treatment combination improved the germination of seeds by 22% and 23.5% both before and after accelerated ageing, Therefore, the implementation of a two-stem training strategy combined with NAA @50 ppm spray can be recommended for commercial tomato seed production programs.