Botany Department, Lucknow University, Lucknow 226 007
Tomato cv. Pusa Ruby was raised in a pot experiment with alluvial soils, after fertilizing it with proper doses of essential macro and micronutrients omitting Zn. Zinc as zinc sulphate was added separately at 0, 1, 2.5, 5 and 10 mg/kg of soil. Addition of 5 mg Zn/kg soil to tomato plants not only increased the biomass but also increased the fruit yield and improved its quality. The parameters most affected were fruit yield, total pulp weight, acidity, concentration of lycopene, ascorbic acid, total carotenes and water content. Except for Zn concentration, contents of P, Fe, Mn and Cu decreased in tomato leaves with an increase in Zn amendment to the soil.
