Yield, quality, nutrient and water use efficiency of tomato as affected by different fertigation rates through drip irrigation system

An experiment was carried out to study the impact of drip fertigation in tomato crop at RCA, MPUAT, Udaipur during rabi season 2015–16 in split plot designed with three irrigation schedules [100 (I1), 75 (I₂) and 50% PE (I₃) through drip] and five fertilization schedules [100% RDF (F1), 75% RDF (F₂), 75% RDF + 2 foliar spray of 1% urea phosphate (F₃), 50% RDF (F), 50% RDF + 2 foliar spray of 1% urea phosphate (F₅)]. Higher number of nodes per plant (21.20 and 19.89) and yield (169.03 and 186.38 q/ha) were registered with treatments receiving drip irrigation at 75% PE and 75% RDF through fertigation + 2 foliar spray of 1% urea phosphate, respectively. Quality characteristics were enhanced with combined use of I₂F₃ treatment. The highest water use efficiency i.e. 26.37 ka/ha-cm was recorded under I₃F₃ treatment and fertilizer use efficiency with I₂F₅ treatment combination (165.78, 254.31 and 381.46 kg/kg NPK, respectively).