Effect of foliar spray of gibberellic acid (GA3) and borax on growth, productivity, and quality of tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum Mill.) under protected structure at Kaski, Nepal

Abstract

Tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum Mill.) is a highly demanded solanaceous vegetable crop in Nepal. Poor vegetative growth, low flowering and fruit set are the major problems in tomato. Thus, an experiment was conducted to improve vegetative growth, flowering, fruiting and productivity of tomato (Nepali Variety Type 2) at Pokhara-14, Kaski, Nepal during spring- summer of 2019 in Split plot arrangement with gibberellic acid (GA3) as main factor and Borax as sub factor, with three replications. The main factor consisted of four concentrations of GA3 (0, 25, 50 and 75 ppm) which was applied thrice as foliar spray at 15, 30 and 45 days after transplanting (DAT) and sub factor consisted three concentrations of borax (0%, 0.25% and 0.5%) which was applied four times as foliar spray at 15, 30, 45 and 60 DAT. Growth characters viz., plant height, leaf area, leaf number, flower number per cluster, fruit number were significantly enhanced with application of 50 ppm GA3 and gave higher productivity (31.65 t ha-1) compared to other concentrations and control. Likewise, foliar spray of borax resulted in higher stem girth, flower clusters, number of flowers per cluster, and TSS content of tomato. Furthermore, borax @ 0.25% gave the highest productivity (30.78 t ha-1). The better effect of 50 ppm GA3 on growth and yield of tomato and effect of 0.25% borax on flowering and yield, makes them promising solutions to the problems of tomato at Kaski, Nepal. Thus, further research should be conducted by using GA3 and borax in several other tomato cultivars in field and under protected structure at different soil type and climatic conditions.