Interaction Effect of Zinc and Boron on the Growth, Yield and Yield Attributes of Tomato in Acid Soils of Manipur

Abstract

The field experiment was carried out at the Research farm of Central Agricultural University, Imphal, Manipur, during the rabi seasons of 2016-17 and 2017-18, to study the interaction effect of Zinc and Boron on growth, yield, and yield attributes of tomato (Pusa Ruby). There were ten treatments viz., T1 (Zn0.0+B0.0), T2 (Zn2.5+B1.0), T3 (Zn2.5+B1.5), T4 (Zn2.5+B2.0), T5 (Zn5.0+B1.0), T6 (Zn5.0+B1.5), T7 (Zn5.0+B2.0), T8 (Zn10+B1.0), T9 (Zn10+B1.5) and T10 (Zn10+B2.0) with three replications were laid out by FRBD design. The combined effect of zinc and boron showed a significant effect on the number of fruits plant-1, fruit weight plant-1, and yield ha-1, whereas there was no significant effect on plant growth parameters (plant height). Among the treatments, the T10 (Zn10+B2.0) treatment exhibited a significantly increased in the number of fruits plant-1 (35.83 in the first year and 36.52 in the second year), fruit weight plant-1 (1.62 kg in the first year and 1.76 kg in the second year.), highest fruit yield (60.06 t ha-1 in the first year and in 65.1 t ha-1 in the second year) was produced from the treatment combination of 10 kg of Zn ha-1 and 2.0 kg B ha-1 in both years than the control treatment (Zn0.0+B0.0).