INTRODUCTION
Tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum Mill.), under the family
Solanaceae is one of the important, popular and nutritious
vegetable crop grown in Bangladesh during rabi season
(Mondal et al., 2011). It is cultivated in almost all home
gardens and also in the field due to its adaptability to wide
range of soil and climate (Ahmed, 1976; Chopra et al.,
2017). It ranks next to potato and sweet potato in the
world vegetable production and tops the list of canned
vegetable (Choudhury, 1979). Tomato is highly nutritious
as it contains 94.1% water, 23 calories energy, 1.90 g pro-
tein, 1 g calcium, 7 mg magnesium, 1000 IU vitamin A, 31
mg vitamin C, 0.09 mg thiamin, 0.03 mg riboflavin, 0.8 mg
niacin per 100 g edible portion (Rashid, 1983) in comparison
to its requirement (Aditya et al., 1999; Chopra et al., 2017).
The low yield of tomato in Bangladesh, however, is not an
indication of low yielding ability of this crop, but of the fact
that low yielding variety, poor crop management practices
and lack of improved technologies. Tomato is cultivated
generally in winter season. There is considerable interest in
extending the cultivation of tomato over a longer period. In
the dry season with high temperature, flower abortion occurs
and fruits drop frequently, which causes very poor yield of
tomato (Nahir and Ullah, 2012; Chopra et al., 2017). Howev-
er, high temperature before and after the short winter season
inhibits the flower and fruit development, use of plant growth
regulators, viz. gibberellin and auxin has been reported to
be very effective to overcome the problems of flower and
fruit development in tomato (Adlakha and Velma, 1965;
Groot et al., 1987). GA
3
, particularly, is known to pro-
mote fruit development in pollinated ovaries that undergoes
dormancy due to high temperature (Johnson and Liver-
man, 1957 ). Fruit set in tomato can be increased by
applying plant growth regulators to compensate the defi-
ciency of natural growth substances required for its develop-
ment (Singh and Choudhury, 1966). Therefore, it was
ORIGINAL RESEARCH ARTICLE
Interaction effect of seedling age and different doses of GA
3
on growth and yield of
tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum Mill.)
Rumpa Sarker
1*
, Sasthi Pada Ray
2
, Juthika Paul
3
, Awfiqua Nusrat
4
and Sharmila Rani Mallick
5
1
Scientific Officer, Spices Research Sub-Centre, Bangladesh Agricultural Research Institute ,Faridpur -7800, BANGLADESH
2
Assistant Director, Bureau of Manpower, Employment and Training, Manikgonj -1800, BANGLADESH
3
Agricultural Extension Officer, Department of Agriculture Extension, Dhaka-1207, BANGLADESH
4
Lecturer, Agricultural College, Gazipur-1701, BANGLADESH
5
Scientific Officer, Regional Pulse Research Station, Bangladesh Agricultural Research Institute Madaripur-7900, BANGLADESH
*
Corresponding author’s E-mail: rumpakbds@gmail.com
Archives of Agriculture and Environmental Science 2(4): 301-304 (2017)
https://doi.org/10.26832/24566632.2017.020409
This content is available online at AESA
Archives of Agriculture and Environmental Science
Journal homepage: www.aesacademy.org
e-ISSN: 2456-6632
ARTICLE HISTORY
Received: 08 October 2017
Revised received: 07 November 2017
Accepted: 14 November 2017
Keywords
GA
3
Growth and yield
Interaction effect
Seeding age
Tomato
ABSTRACT
An experiment was conducted in the Horticultural Farm of Sher -e-Bangla Agricultural University,
Sher-e-Bangla Nagar, Dhaka-1207 during the period from October 2010 to March 2011 to find out
the effect of GA
3
and seedling age on the growth and yield of tomato. The experiment was laid out in
randomized complete block design ( RCBD) with three replications. The experiment consisted of four
concentration of GA
3
such as control G
0
= no GA
3
, G
1
= 75 ppm GA
3
, G
2
= 100 ppm GA
3
and G
3
=125
ppm GA
3
; three different seedling ages such as S
1
= 20 days, S
2
= 25 days and S
3
= 30 days old
seedling. All parameter varied significantly at different concentration of GA
3
in different DAT. The
combined effect of G
3
S
3
(125 ppm GA
3
with 30 days old seedling) gave the maximum yield (90.28 t
ha
-1
), on the other hand combined effect of G
0
S
1
(no GA
3
with 20 days old seedling) gave the
minimum yield (59.83t ha
-1
). The maximum yield (2.79 kg) plant
-1
was recorded from treatment
combination of G
3
S
3
and the minimum yield (1.20 kg) was recorded from treatment combination
G
0
S
1
. The maximum yield (32.47 kg) plot
-1
was recorded from treatment combination G
3
S
3
and the
minimum yield (21.52 kg) plot
-1
was recorded from treatment combination G
0
S
1
. The maximum
yield (90.28 t ha
-1
) was recorded from treatment combination of G
3
S
3
and the minimum yield
(59.83 t ha
-1
) was recorded from treatment combination of G
0
S
1
. Therefore, 125 ppm GA
3
with 30
days old seedling was found suitable combination for tomato production.
©2017 Agriculture and Environmental Science Academy
Citation of this article: Sarker, R., Ray, S.P., Paul, J., Nusrat, A. and Mallick, S.R. (2017). Interaction effect of seedling age and different
doses of GA
3
on growth and yield of tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum Mill.). Archives of Agriculture and Environmental Science, 2(4): 301
-304, DOI: 10.26832/24566632.2017.020409