dc.description.abstract |
A study was conducted in the Instructional Farm of KCAET, Tavanur, Kerala,
during the period from December 2016 to April 2017 to compare the performance of
tomato grown under polyhouse and rainshelter cultivation. Tomato variety Akshaya,
released by KAU, was used for the study. Drip irrigation system using venturi
assembly was used for fertilizer application. The variation of weather parameters such
as maximum and minimum temperature, relative humidity and soil temperature during
the crop growth period was studied. Mean monthly values of temperature, relative
humidity and soil temperature inside the polyhouse was higher than that in rainshelter
throughout the growth period. The maximum temperature (36.4 0C) was recorded
inside the naturally ventilated polyhouse during the month April and minimum
temperature (22.3 0C) was observed in the rainshelter during month of January. The
maximum relative humidity (83.82 per cent) was observed in the month of December
in the polyhouse and the minimum relative humidity (70.2 per cent) was observed in
the month of April in the rainshelter in the morning. The maximum soil temperature
(37.8 0C) was observed under the polyhouse in the month of March at the morning and
minimum soil temperature (25 0C) was observed inside the rainshelter in the month of
February. Crop growth parameters such as plant height, inter-nodal length, number of
branches, stem girth, number of leaves and time taken for flower initiation were noted
during various crop growth stages for all the treatments. During all growth stages, the
plant height and inter-nodal length were significantly higher inside the polyhouse than
rainshelter. Stem girth of the plant was higher under rainshelter than the rainshelter.
The higher numbers of leaves per plant were observed under rainshelter structure than
polyhouse. Among the different treatments, early flower initiation (45 days) was
observed in the polyhouse and late flower initiation (49 days) in rainshelter. Yield
parameters such as number of fruits per plant and total yield per plant for each
treatment were noted during various crop growth stages. Number of fruits per plant
was maximum under rainshelter than naturally ventilated polyhouse at all the growing
stages of the plant growth. The fruit diameters, average weight per fruit are
significantly higher in polyhouse compare to rainshelter. The total yield of tomato
observed from polyhouse and rainshelter were 1.31 kg/m 2 and 4.15 kg/m 2 respectively.
Quality parameter of tomato like TSS content of tomato under the polyhouse system
was found 4.56 0 B and rainshelter was found 4.0 0 B. Water use efficiency was
observed higher under rainshelter (165.41 kg/ha.mm) than the polyhouse (52.12 kg/
ha.mm). Cost Benefit (B:C) ratio for each treatment was calculated. The maximum
benefit cost ratio of 2.00 was observed in rainshelter than the 0.46 under polyhouse
cultivation. From the results of the study it was evident that growing of tomato inside
the rainshelter is more profitable than growing it inside naturally ventilated polyhouse. |
en_US |