Yield, quality, nutrient and water use efficiency of tomato as affected by different fertigation rates through drip irrigation system
An experiment was carried out to study the impact of drip fertigation in tomato crop at RCA, MPUAT, Udaipur during rabi season 2015-16 in split plot designed with three irrigation schedules [100 (I1), 75 (I2) and 50% PE (I3) through drip] and five fertilization schedules [100% RDF (F1), 75% RDF (F2), 75% RDF + 2 foliar spray of 1% urea phosphate (F3), 50% RDF (F4), 50% RDF + 2 foliar spray of 1% urea phosphate (F5)]. Higher number of nodes per plant (21.20 and 19.89) and yield (169.03 and 186.38 q/ha) were registered with treatments receiving drip irrigation at 75% PE and 75% RDF through fertigation + 2 foliar spray of 1% urea phosphate, respectively. Quality characteristics were enhanced with combined use of I2F3 treatment. The highest water use efficiency i.e. 26.37 ka/ha-cm was recorded under I3F3 treatment and fertilizer use efficiency with I2F5 treatment combination (165.78, 254.31 and 381.46 kg/kg NPK, respectively).