Department of Vegetable Science, G.B. Pant University of Agriculture and Technology, Pantnagar 263 145
The direct field sown crop resulted in comparatively dwarf plants, significant earliness in fruit maturity and higher early yield as well as C:B ratio when compared with the transplanted crop. Early seeding on 1 October although produced shorter plants, lesser mean number of fruits/plant, lesser per plant and yield/ha and had higher virus infection, yet it proved most economical because of significantly higher early yield. The interaction indicated that direct field sowing of tomato seeds on 1 October in raised beds at 75 × 20 cm spacing was more remunerative than the commonly practiced transplanting system.
