Surendra Lal Shrestha1 and Won-Hee Kang2
1Senior Scientist, Horticulture Research Division, NARC, Kumaltar
Email: shsurendra@hotmail.com
2Professor Kangwon National University, Repubilic of Korea
ABSTRACT
Three weeks old seedlings of four commercial hybrid tomato cultivars; Adhoration, Anamay, Bay and Temptation were grown on cocopit and rockwool media with five replications on split plot design as substrate main plot and cultivars subplot in green house condition at Hwacheon, South Korea. Transplanting was done on June 21, 2012 with spacing of 30 cm between plant and 45 cm between rows. Nutrients and water was supplied through drip irrigation. Plants were trained as single stem and fruits harvested up to two meter height. The major objective of this experiment was to evaluate the potentiality of cocopit substrate and find out the most suitable cultivar for commercially growing. Result showed that plants grown on cocopit were vigorous, lesser number of leaves below first truss, higher average weight of fruit and bigger size as compared to rockwool substrate, and effect of cultivars was significant on days to flowering, plant vigor, plant height, number of leaves, internode length, number of flowers and fruits on second truss, days to maturity, powdery mildew disease, fruit characteristics and yield. However, no any interaction effect between substrate and cultivars was observed. Hence, cocopit which is organic and renewable substrate and yield at par to rockwool can replace rockwool. On the basis of overall characteristics, Bay showed superior performance and selected for commercial cultivation.
Keywords: Biodegradable, hybrid cultivar, keeping quality, water holding capacity, yield