Impact of microbial inoculants on growth and yield of tomato (Solanum lycopersicon L.) under temperate conditions

A field experiment was conducted to study the “Impact of Microbial Inoculants on Growth and Yield of Tomato (Solanum lycopersicon L.) under temperate conditions”, during Kharif 2017 at Experimental Farm, Division of Basic Sciences & Humanities, Faculty of Agriculture and Regional Research Station, Wadura, Sopore, SKUAST-K, to evaluate the effect of various microbial inoculants on growth and yield parameters of tomato. The experiment was laid in Randomized complete Block Design (RCBD) with three replications which consisted of seven inoculants viz; Azotobacter sp., Azospirillum sp., Phosphorous Solubilizing Bacteria (PSB), Potassium Solubilizing Bacteria (KSB), Vesicular Arbuscular Mycorrhiza (VAM) and co-inoculation of VAM+ PSB and VAM+ KSB and control. Various growth and yield parameters viz., plant height, no. of leaves, root length, dry matter accumulation, average fruit weight, at various intervals responded significantly to all the microbial inoculants. The performance of microbial inoculants were evaluated individually and in combination with one other in contrast to control for screening the best microbial inoculants. The results depicted that among all the microbial inoculants, Azotobacter sp. followed by Azospirillum proved superior than rest of the inoculants in terms of improving various growth, quality and yield attributes viz. maximum plant height (45.9 cm), No. of leaves (248.2), dry matter accumulation (282.2g), average fruit weight (50.8g), root length (33.2cm) and yield (2.01 kg/plant) respectively. For number of fruits, Azospirillum sp. gave best results (40.83) followed by Azotobacter (40.7). Therefore, from the present investigation it can be concluded that among all the inoculants, Azotobacter sp. proved superior for increasing all the growth, yield and quality parameters of the tomato crop followed by Azospirillum sp .