Effect of micronutrients foliar application on seed yield in tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum mill)

Abstract

A field experiment was conducted during spring of 2010 to find out the response of foliar application of
micronutrients on vegetative and reproductive growth attributes, in two varieties of tomato viz- Utkal
Kumari and Utkal Raja. The treatments consisted of boron, zinc, molybdenum, copper, iron, manganese,
mixture of all and control and the experiment was laid out in RBD with three replications. All the
Micronutrients except manganese (at 50ppm) were applied at 100ppm in three sprays at an interval of ten
days starting from 30 days after transplanting. All the treatments resulted in improvement of seed yield
characteristics viz. recovery percentage, 100 seed weight, seed yield per plant and seed yield per hectare in
both the varieties out of which application of micronutrients mixture showed the maximum effect. Highest
seed recovery rates of 0.53 and 0.55 percent recorded in the varieties Utkal Kumari and Utkal Raja,
respectively by application of micronutrients mixture. The highest seed weight was observed with
application of micro-nutrients mixture (Utkal Raja) and boron (Utkal Kumari). In both varieties, application
of micronutrients mixture reached the maximum seed yield followed by boron treatment; in respect both
the parameters, while the lowest yield was obtained in the control.