Investigating MAD and Fertigation Effects on Tomato Under Drip Irrigation System in Greenhouse

Fertigation through drip irrigation has a potential to improve irrigation and fertilizers use efficiency. The main objective was determined the effects of different Management Allowed Depletion (MAD) levels alongside altered doses of fertigation (NIAB prepared and imported water-soluble fertilizers) on the growth and yield of tomato under drip irrigation system in greenhouse. Tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum, Sahil variety) was grown under drip irrigation system in greenhouse. There were two MAD levels i.e. 10% and 15% with four fertilizer treatments i.e. F1 (100% conventional dose), F2 (NIAB developed, 75% conventional dose), F3 (NIAB developed, 50% conventional dose), F4 (imported (NPK 20:20:20), 75% conventional dose). There were eight treatments under drip irrigation system and one conventional/control treatment. Crop water requirement was determined by Penman-Monteith (PM) method. CROPWAT model version (7.0) was used to compute reference ET and Irrigation Water Requirements (IWR). Crop yield and Growth parameters such as plant height, stem diameter, inter node distance, number of leaves and leaf size was also measured. The results showed that treatment T5 produced maximum crop yield of 45.09 ton/ha than other treatments and control/famer practice. Only 5% difference in MAD level have no significant effect but quality and quantity of DoF have significant variations among treatments.