NARENDER KUMAR*, R. K. JHORAR, SANJAY KUMAR, RAM PRAKASH AND ARVIND
Department of Soil and Water Engineering, CCS Haryana Agricultural University, Hisar-125 004 (Haryana), India
*(e-mail : narender14300@gmail.com)
(Received : June 8, 2017; Accepted : August 23, 2017)
ABSTRACT
A field experiment was conducted on micro plots (2 m נ2 m) at Research Farm of CCS Haryana Agricultural University, Hisar, India to study the effect of different fertigation levels of tomato crop using good quality water through drip irrigation. There were three fertigation levels of nitrogen i. e. N1 75% of recommended dose
of nitrogen (RDN), N2 100% RDN and N3 125% RDN. The volume of irrigation water applied per plant during an irrigation event was calculated based on crop spacing, pan evaporation, crop coefficient and per cent shaded area. A total of 948.4 litre of water was applied to each micro plot during the entire crop period. Soil moisture in profile of different treatments was taken at fortnight interval. 1/3 rd of nitrogen was applied before the transplanting of tomato plants. Remaining dose was equally split in 11 doses at weekly interval. Maximum tomato yield (61.53 t/ha) and water use efficiency (WUE = 26.0 kg/m3) were obtained with nitrogen
fertigation level N3 Minimum tomato yield (43.25 t/ha) and water use efficiency (18.2 kg/m3) were obtained with nitrogen fertigation level N1 . Maximum nitrogen use efficiency (NUE) (594.9 kg of tomato/kg of nitrogen) was obtained with fertigation level N2 and minimum NUE (492.2 kg of tomato/kg of nitrogen) was obtained with fertigation level N3.
Key words : Drip irrigation, fertigation, nitrogen, NUE, tomato, WUE