Tomato

Nutrient Management

Introduction Nitrogen Phosphorus Potassium Iron Zinc Magnesium

Introduction

he tomato crop responds very well to manurial and fertilizer application.
A crop of tomato producing about 37 tonnes/ha of ripe tomatoes removes 80 kg of nitrogen, 20 kg of phosphorus and 130 kg of potassium.
The exact requirement of manurial and fertilizers would depend on the fertility status of the soil in which the crop is being taken.
However, the different recommendations made in various regions are 60 to 110 kg of nitrogen usually in the form of ammonium sulphate, 35 to 60 kg of phosphorus in the form of superphosphate and 35 to 60 kg of potash (muriate of potash) per hectare.
In addition, about 20 cartload of fully decomposed farmyard manure are also applied.
Generally, the complete dose of farmyard manure, phosphatic and potassic fertilizers are applied at the time of field preparation for transplanting the seedlings.
The fertilizers are placed in bands 7.5 to 10 cm deep on both sides of the row before making furrows.

Top

Nitrogen

Dosage

60 kg N/ha-for varieties

110 kg N/ha-for hybrids

For normal varieties nitrogen fertilizer is applied in two equal split doses, the first half to be given before transplanting along with phosphorus and potassic fertilizers and the second dose to be applied at 45 days after transplanting.
For hybrids nitrogen fertilizer is applied in three equal split doses one at the time of last ploughing, second dose at 30 days after planting, final dose at 60 days after planting.
High doses of nitrogen produced significantly more number of flowers and fruits than the lower doses. Six sprays of 1% urea at weekly intervals, starting at the seedling stage, produced significant increase in the yield of tomato.
All the cultivated soils are deficient in nitrogen and deficiency occurs if nitrogen is not applied or when inadequate amount is applied.

Deficiency symptoms

Nitrogen deficient tomato plants grow slowly.
Leaves are small and light green to yellowish green to pale yellow.

Leaves near the top will be yellow-green with purple veins.
Stems are thick and hard. Flower buds turn yellow and drop off.
Fruits may be small and pale green before ripening. Yields are reduced.
Nitrogen deficiency of the nutrient can be corrected by applying nitrogenous fertilizers based on soil test.

Top

Phosphorus

Dosage

35 kg/ha - varieties

60 kg/ha - hybrids

Entire dose of phosphatic fertilisers is applied at the time of last ploughing in case of varieties.
For hybrids phosphatic fertilisers are applied in two equal splits one at the time of last ploughing and final dose at 30 DAP.

Deficiency symptoms

Plants deficient in phosphorus grow slowly.
Maturity is delayed.
Seedlings are stunted, especially during cool weather.
Leaves become dark green with purple interveinal tissue on the underside of the leaf.

Stems become slender, fibrous and hard.
The deficiency can be corrected by applying phosphatic fertilizers based on soil tests.

Top

Potassium

Dosage

35 kg/ha - varieties

60 kg/ha - hybrids

For normal varieties potassic fertilizer is applied in two equal split doses, the first half to be given before transplanting along with phosphorus and nitrogen fertilizers and the second dose to be applied at 45 days after transplanting.
For hybrids potassic fertilizer is applied in three equal split doses one at the time of last ploughing, second dose at 30 days after planting, final dose at 60 days after planting.
Phosphorus deficiency is common in light soils, specially when phosphorus is not applied or inadequately applied.
Light soils are deficient in potassium when it is not applied or inadequately applied.

Deficiency symptoms

The deficient young tomato plants have dark green leaves with small stems and shortened internodes.
Plant tips have a spike like appearance resulting from the slower development of the leaf petioles.
Young leaves are dark green, becoming crinkled and curled. Older leaves are chlorotic and bronzed.
Leaf margins become brown, and tissues break down between the veins.

Fruits of deficient plants are not fleshy, ripen unevenly and appear blotchy and drop off soon after repining.
The deficiency can be corrected by applying potassium fertilizers, based on soil tests.

Top

Iron

Iron deficiency is visible in highly calcareous soils or when water containing high carbonates are used for irrigation.

Deficiency symptoms

Young leaves are chlorotic in iron deficient plants.
Pale yellow mottling starts at the base of the leaves and spreads upward along the midrib and outward along the veins.
Iron deficiency is often related to soils with high pH, free CaCO3, high phosphorous and poor aeration.
Its deficiency can be corrected by spraying 0.25 per cent ferrous sulphate or 0.5 per cent annabedi till the chlorotic symptoms do not appear on young leaves.

Top

Zinc

Zinc deficiency is fairly wide spread in the soils of Telangana. Mostly expected in zinc deficient soils, calcareous soils, and in alkali soils.

Deficiency symptoms

Young leaves of zinc deficient plants are small with yellow interveinal mottling.
Necrotic interveinal areas occur in expanded and older leaves.

Spraying 0.25 per cent Zinc sulphate twice at weekly intervals corrects Zinc deficiency and for prevention soil application of zinc sulphate @ 50 kg/ha is recommended.
Single morphactin treatment significantly checked the abscission and shedding of flowers thereby increasing the number of fruits per plant.
The quantity of fruits was maximum when treated with GA₃ followed by control and morphactin-treated plants.
Also, comparatively higher values of pyruvic acid and glyoxylic acid were recorded with GA3 treatments.

Top

Magnesium

Magnesium deficiency can be expected in light soils or when excessive amounts of calcium are available for the soil or when high amounts of calcium containing fertilizers are applied.

Deficiency symptoms

Magnesium deficiency is first evident on lower and older leaves. Leaf veins remain dark green, and areas between the veins become yellow.

Nitrogen deficiency intensifies the development of Mg deficiency in low Mg soils.
The deficiency can be corrected by spraying 0.5 per cent magnesium sulphate twice at weakly intervals.

Top

Telangana

Tomato

About Tomato

History
Morphology

Tomato Management

Services Overview

The key services offered by Ikisan are:

System study, design and development of IT enabled solutions and services for the agri sector.

Execution of rural IT enabled projects on BOT/BOOT/Turnkey basis.

Development, Customization and Deployment of Ikisan's IPR protected software applications.

Providing support services and best management practices for augmenting the marketing development efforts of the groups agricultural input companies (NFCL and NACL).

Development and Dissemination of best practice and information though a unique multi lingual knowledge website for the agri sector.

Some of the key customers/partners that benefit significantly from our work include are Electronics Corporation of India Ltd, State Agricultural Marketing Boards, Central Research Institute for Dryland Agriculture, Tamil Nadu, Centre for Development of Advanced Computing, Motorola Mobility (GOOGLE) etc.

As highlighted earlier Ikisan provides significant support to the market development and marketing efforts of NFCL and NACL by providing best practices and information across the agricultural input value chain - weather, soil, seeds, fertilizers, water, pesticides, output prices etc. that have enabled the companies to develop deep customer relationships and in turn enable them to grow above market growth rates. Recently example in fertilizers includes the development of Customized Fertilizer Grades (for NFCL across India that are crop and location specific have not only reduced the current consumption of fertilizers of farmers but have significantly enhanced crop yields and farmer incomes) that are expected to add significant revenues to the company.

Currently, agriculture value chain is driven by technical expertise. However, there is a lack of adequate Management knowledge and skills amongst the professionals. Therefore, Ikisan and XLRI, Jamshedpur have jointly developed an Agri Business Management Program for Agri-professionals and students. Ikisan provides the domain expertise while XLRI provides pedagogy. This program is a combination of virtual learning and campus based module at XLRI, Jamshedpur. This program has been highly appreciated.

Intellectual Property Rights for many software applications such as Field Manager, Vyapar, Mandi, Quick Solutions Systems, Management Time Table, Agri Information System and Agrecommerz belong to Ikisan. A significant recent development in this area is the introduction of Weather Based Crop Insurance. This entails setting up of Automatic Weather Stations, which provide dynamic village-level data essential for settlement of weather based insurance claims.