Drip irrigation and fertigation technology for improved yield, quality, water and fertilizer use efficiency in hybrid tomato

Study was carried out for improve yield, quality and water/fertilizer use efficiency in tomato hybrid SH-TH-1 under drip irrigation and fertigation technology at the experimental farm of Division of Olericulture, SKUAST-K, Shalimar, Srinagar. The experimental layout was carried out in factorial randomized block design with four replications of 16 treatment combinations. Surface irrigation and manual fertilizer application were treated as control. Irrigation was given based on the estimated crop water requirement following alternate day irrigation schedule for drip irrigation while the surface irrigation was given according to the locally adopted frequency. Drip irrigation at 80% ET and fertigation with 60% recommended NPK significantly enhanced fruit yield of (989.3 q/ha), higher water use efficiency (49.9 q/ha-cm) and fertilizers use efficiency (10.9, 18.3 and 27.4 q/kg NPK, respectively). Average fruit weight, fruit length and fruit diameter also exhibited higher values (53.0 g, 4.48 cm and 4.75 cm, respectively with the same treatment combination. However quality characteristics like TSS, vitamin C, lycopene content and total sugar were found much improved with the treatment combination of 80% ET through drip and 80% recommended NPK through fertigation