Tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum Mill.) is one of
the most popular vegetables grown all over the world. It is
a rich source of minerals, vitamins and organic acids and is
universally treated as “Protective food”. For realizing higher
yields and quality produce, soil health is a critical factor.
Therefore, chemical fertilizers must be integrated with
organic manures such as, FYM, crop residues and green
manures which are renewable and eco friendly to achieve
sustainable productivity with minimum deleterious effects
of chemical fertilizers on soil health and environment. The
yield per unit area can be increased along with the
improvement of its quality through the balanced application
of organic and inorganic fertilizers in proper combination.
Therefore the present investigation was undertaken to find
out the optimum dose and best combination of organic
manures and inorganic fertilizers for obtaining higher yield
of tomato.

The field experiment was conducted at the
Vegetable Experimental Farm of the Division of
Olericulture, Sher-e-Kashmir University of Agricultural
Sciences and Technology of Kashmir, Shalimar during
Kharif 2002 and 2003.The climate at the experimental site
is temperate characterized by mild summers and very cold
winters. The soil is clay loam having organic carbon
(1.724%), pH (7.0), available N (228.0 kg/ ha), available P

Effect of organic manures and inorganic fertilizers on fruit yield of tomato

S. Narayan, N. Ahmed, R. Narayan, Shahnaz Mufti and Rakshanda Bhat
Division of Olericulture

 S. K. University of Agricultural Sciences and Technology of Kashmir
Shalimar, Srinagar-191 121 (J&K), India

ABSTRACT

Treatments with organic manure, inorganic fertilizers and their combinations showed significant differences
for fruit yield and yield attributing traits. Among the treatments, application of 20 t FYM/ ha along with full
dose of recommended NPK i.e. 150:60:60 kg NPK / ha recorded the highest fruit yield of 428.32 and 530.55 q/ ha
during the year 2002 and 2003, respectively with grand mean fruit yield of 479.43 q/ ha. This treatment was on
par with 40 tonnes FYM + ½ dose of recommended NPK during 2002 and 2003, which recorded mean fruit yield
of 456.17 q/ ha. Both these treatments were significantly superior to recommended inorganic NPK fertilizer
treatment (435.57 q/ ha) as well as to application of different doses of organic manure alone such as FYM and
green manure, indicating that integration of both organic manures and inorganic fertilizers are important for
obtaining higher fruit yield in tomato. Addition of organic manure besides having favourable effect on crop
yield was also found to be better in maintaining soil health and growth of succeeding crop.

Key words: Fruit yield, inorganic fertilizers, organic manures, tomato

Short communication

(20.67 kg/ ha), available K (156.8 kg/ ha) and electric
conductivity (0.16 dsm-1). The experiment was laid out in
Randomized Block Design with three replications at a
spacing of 60 x 30cm. Nine treatments of organic manures,
inorganic fertilizers and their combinations i.e. FYM 40t /
ha, FYM 20t / ha, Green manures with cowpea @ 5t / ha,
recommended NPK (150:60:60kg / ha), ½ recommended
NPK, FYM 40t / ha + ½ recommended NPK, FYM 20t / ha
+ ½ recommended NPK, FYM 20t / ha + full  recommended
NPK and Green manuring + ½ recommended NPK were
tried on tomato cv. Shalimar –II. The data on growth and
yield were recorded from 10 randomly selected plants of
each treatment and data analyzed statistically as per standard
procedures.

Treatments exhibited significant differences for
fruit yield and yield attributing traits. Among the treatments,
application of 20t FYM along with full dose of
recommended NPK (150:60:60 kg/ ha) recorded the highest
fruit yield of 428.32 and 530.55 q/ ha during the year 2002
and 2003, respectively with the grand mean fruit yield of
479.43q / ha. This treatment was at par with 40t FYM + ½
dose of recommended NPK during 2002 and 2003 which
recorded mean fruit yield of 456.17q / ha. Both these
treatments were significantly superior to recommended
inorganic NPK fertilizer treatment (435.57q / ha) as well

J. Hortl. Sci.
Vol. 3 (1): 72-74, 2008

page 72



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J. Hortl. Sci.
Vol. 3 (1): 72-74, 2008

Effect of sources of nutrients on yield of tomato



74

as to application of different doses of organic manures i.e.
FYM or green manure, indicating that integration of both
organic manures and inorganic fertilizers is important for
obtaining higher yield in tomato. The results are in line
with the findings of Abusaleha and Shanmugavelu (1998)
in bhindi, and Malewar et al (1998) in chillies. Organic
manures when applied with inorganic fertilizers increases
the effectiveness of inorganic manures (Robert and Stephen,
1953). Similarly maximum number of fruits per plant and
plant height were recorded with the application of 20t FYM
/ ha and full recommended dose of NPK followed by 40t
FYM / ha and ½ recommended dose of NPK. It is obvious
that organic form in combination with inorganic form
proved better in increasing the number of fruits / plant, plant
height and average fruit weight. This could be attributed to
a higher C/N ratio and increased plant metabolism. These
results are in conformity with Abusaleha and Shanmugavelu
(1988) in bhindi and Mellengouda et al (1995) in chillies.
The increased vegetative growth and balanced C/N ratio
could lead to increased synthesis of carbohydrates which
ultimately promoted greater yield. The highest value of total
soluble solids in tomato fruit (4.330 B) was observed with
the treatment combination of 20t FYM / ha + ½
recommended dose of NPK during the year 2002, whereas
during the year 2003, maximum of 4.330 B was found with
the application of recommended NPK i.e. 150:60:60 kg
NPK /ha. These results are in agreement with the earlier

findings of Mohd Rafi et al (2002). From the present study
it can be inferred that the application of 20t FYM / ha along
with full dose of recommended NPK (150:60:60 kg / ha)
produce higher yields. Therefore, the results show that the
combination of organic manure and inorganic fertilizers
helps to improve yield of tomato.

REFERENCES

Abusaleha and Shanmugavelu, K. G. 1988. Studies on the
effect of organic v/s inorganic source of nitrogen on
growth, yield and quality of okra (Abelmoschus
esculentus). Ind. J. Hortl., 45: 312-318.

Malewar, G. U., Ismail, S. and Rudraksha, G. B. 1998.
Integrated nitrogen management in chilli (Capsicum
annum L.). Bull. Ind. Instt. Soil Sci., 2: 156-163.

Mallengouda, B., Sulikeri, G. S., Murthy, B. G. and Prathiba,
N. C. 1995. Effect of NPK, FYM and companion
crops on growth, yield and yield components of chilli
(Capsicum annum L.). Adv. Agril. Res. India., 3: 58-
59.

Mohd Rafi., Narwadkar, P. R., Prabu, T. and Sajindranath,
A. K. 2002. Effect of organic and i n o r g a n i c
fertilizers on growth and yield of tomato
(Lycopersicon esculentum Mill.). South Ind. Hortl.,
50: 522-526.

Robert, A. N. and Stephen, R. E. 1953. Saw dust and other
wood waste as mulch for horticultural crops. Tech.
pap. Orc. Agri. Expt. Stat., 276, pp.8.

(MS Received 5 February 2007, Revised 7 December 2007)

J. Hortl. Sci.
Vol. 3 (1): 72-74, 2008

Narayan et al