The over reliance of conventional agriculture on synthetic chemical inputs such as fertilizers and pesticides has led to environmental degradation, soil erosion and water pollution, posing risks to biodiversity and human health though they increase the crop yield. At present, the use of organic amendments in agriculture has gained considerable attention due to their potential benefits in enhancing soil fertility, crop productivity and sustainability. A field experiment was undertaken to study the effect of organic treatments on physiological and quality parameters of tomato at the Instructional cum Research Farm, Biswanath College of Agriculture, Assam Agricultural University, Biswanath Chariali during 2020-2021. The results revealed that both the parameters were significantly influenced by various treatments. The organic treatment Enriched compost≈@10 t/ha FYM + 10% Cow urine + 10% Dung brew spray recorded the highest total leaf chlorophyll content (1.90 mg g-1fw), chlorophyll stability index (52.30%) and relative leaf water content(79.92 %) at 45 days after transplanting(DAT), fresh and dry weight of leaf at 30 DAT(3.28 and 0.561g) and at harvest(2.29 and 0.496 g), leaf are a per plant(633.34 and 1083.34 cm2) at 30 and 45 DAT and leaf area index(3.34 and 4.66) at 30 and 45 DAT. This treatment also resulted the highest TSS (6.10 °Brix), lycopene (8.92 mg/100g) and ascorbic acid content (31.92 mg/100g) in the fruit. Hence, in conclusion, it can be suggested that use of organic manure and liquid manure results in production of quality fruits with superior physiological attributes in tomato.

Tomato, organic, physiological, quality, production

It has been observed from the present investigation the inorganic treatment T1 with recommended dose of fertilizers performed best for physiological characters among all the treatments. But among the organic treatments the treatment T13 with Enriched compost ≈ @10 t/ha FYM + 10% Cow urine + 10% Dung brew spray performed best. For quality parameter T13 showed superiority among all the treatments. Therefore it can be concluded that Enriched compost≈@10 t/ha FYM + 10% Cow urine + 10% Dung brew can be used for production of quality fruits with superior physiological and quality attributes of tomato plants under organic production in Assam condition.

Queen Sonowal, B.P. Gautam, Nayanmoni Buragohain, H. Choudhury and Ranima Mishra (2023). Influence of Organics on Physiological and Quality Parameters of Tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum Mill.). Biological Forum – An International Journal, 15(11): 318-324.