Impact of Phenophase Wise Climatic Parameters on Growth and Fruit Yield of Autumn Tomato (Solanum lycopersicum L.)

Abstract

A field experiment was conducted during kharif season 2019to study and identify the impact of weather on growth and fruit yield of tomato under open field Crop was planted on eight different dates viz., 02 Jul, 12 Jul, 22 Jul, 02 Aug, 11 Aug, 23 Aug, 03 Sep and 13 Sep as main plots and two cultivars viz., US 440 and TO-3251 (Saaho) as sub-plots in split plot design and replicated thrice. Result revealed that, significantly more yield attributes and fruit yield of tomato was recorded with maximum temperature range of 30.7 to 32.8oC during vegetative phase, morning Relative humidity (RH) of 88 to 92% during fruit development phase, Vapour Pressure Defficient (VPD) of 0.6 to 0.7 kPa and 0.4 to 0.6kPa during fruit development and harvest phase. Further correlation studies revealed that the most critical weather parameter from fruit initiation to first picking stage was morning RH as this was negatively correlated with drymatter production at fruit development (-0.93**), harvest (-0.95**) and total fruit yield (-0.91**) of tomato, which accounted for 86%, 89% and 83% variation in drymatter production during fruit development, harvest phase and total fruit yield respectively.