Water deficit is one of the most limiting factor for plant survival since it regulates growth and development and limits plant productivity. The tolerance of plants to water stress can be increased through breeding and use of plant growth regulators. The field experiment was conducted during the rabi season of the year 2019-20 at AICRP on Vegetable crops, College of Agriculture, Odisha University of Agriculture and Technology, Bhubaneswar, to evaluate foliar spray with Salicylic Acid & KNO3 on growth and yield of Tomato (Solanum lycopersicum L.) under water stress condition. The experiment was laid down in randomize block design with three replications. The experiment comprised of ten treatments of different concentrations of Salicylic Acid (10 ppm, 25 ppm, 50 ppm, 75 ppm, 100 ppm) and KNO3 (1%, 2.5%, 5%) along with one stress check treatment (Drought stress by withholding irrigation) and stress free check treatment (Irrigated up to field capacity). The yield 49.67 tonnes/ha and yield components such as No. of flower clusters/ plant, No. of fruits/ plant, Fruit yield/ha (t) were also higher from plants that were subjected to moisture stress at vegetative stage and the control. Hence, Application of Salicylic Acid 100 ppm and 5% KNO3 indicated the efficacy of both in ameliorating the deteriorative effects of drought in tomato by improving the growth attributes by enhanced antioxidant enzyme activities and increased the stress tolerance of seedlings.

Salicylic Acid, KNO3, Growth attributes, antioxidant enzyme, moisture stress

Salicylic Acid is known as natural endogenous signaling molecule that plays a key role in governing and mediating the responses of plants in diverse environmental stresses such as drought (Hayat et al., 2010). On the basis of the result obtained in the present investigation it is concluded that foliar application of SA (100 ppm) at pre flowering and fruiting stage proved to be best among other treatments and significantly increased the growth and yield of Tomato under deficit moisture content. So, Salicylic Acid can be considered as an important source that can improve various growth and yield parameters under water stress conditions resulting in higher yield and ultimately the higher return.

Deeptimayee Sahoo, Dipika Sahoo, Gouri Shankar Sahu, Pradyumna Tripathy, Swarnalata Das and Rajkumari Bhol (2022). Effect of foliar application of Salicylic Acid and KNO3 on growth and yield of Tomato (Solanum lycopersicum L.) under water stress condition. Biological Forum – An International Journal, 14(3): 1715-1722.