Effects of mulches on growth and yield of tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum Mill.)

The experiment was carried out during rabi season of 2010–11 at Instructional cum Research Farm, Department of Horticulture, College of Agriculture, Latur, in order to study the effects of different types of mulches on growth and yield of tomato. (Lycopersicon esculentum Mill.) Var. Dhanashree. The experiment was laid out in Randomized Block Design with three replications. The growth and yield attributes were significantly higher in black colour on silver polythene mulch followed by silver colour on black polythene mulch and transparent polythene mulch. The growth attributes like maximum height of plant at 120 DAT (83.48 cm), maximum number of branches per plant (6.26), maximum number of leaves per plant (69.06), maximum length (12.4 cm) and width (8.10 cm) of leaf, maximum leaf area (101.06 cm² maximum Leaf Area Index (3.74) maximum yield per plant of tomato (1.63 kg) and maximum yield per hectare (60.61 Mt/ha) was observed in black colour on silver polythene mulch treatment.