Morphological characters and dry mass production in winter tomato as affected by foliar application of plant growth regulators

Abstract

A field experiment was conducted at the field laboratory of Crop Botany Department, Bangladesh Agricultural University, Mymensingh to study the effect of different levels of plant growth regulators, PGRs (GA₃, NAA) on the growth and yield in two tomato varieties. The experiment was laid out in a three factorial randomized completely block design ( RCBD) with  16 treatments viz. 2 varieties (Ratan and Roma V.F.) × 2 PGRs (GA₃, NAA) × 4 concentration levels of PGRs ( 0, 25, 50 and 100 ppm). The result showed that tomato variety Ratan produced higher yield (3.92 kg plant⁻¹) by increasing plant height, stem diameter at base, branch plant⁻¹, leaves plant⁻¹, fresh and dry weight of leaves,  number of flowers plant⁻¹ than the variety Roma V.F. (3.71 kg plant⁻¹). PGRs enhanced plant height, number of leaves plant⁻¹, fresh and dry weight of leaves, etc. A higher yield was observed in plants treated with GA₃ (4.07 kg plant⁻¹) than in the plants treated with NAA (3.55 kg plant⁻¹). Among the concentrations of PGRs, 50 ppm exhibited better performances producing higher yield (5.02 kg plant⁻¹). Interaction effects of variety, PGR and concentration showed that higher yield (5.06 kg plant⁻¹) was derived from the variety Ratan when treated with 50 ppm of GA₃.

Asian Australas. J. Biosci. Biotechnol. 2016, 1 (3), 514-520