Journal of Water Management

In order to improve the quality of tomato through appropriate drip fertigation and planting geometry a field experiment was conducted at Soil and Water Management Farm, GAU, Navsari during rabi seasons for two years. The treatments comprising of two planting geometries [G₁= Normal and G₂-Paired row planting) and four levels of drip fertigation viz., F₁-100, F₂-80, F₃-60 and F₄-40 per cent recommended dose of NPK (RDF) with one control for each geometry] G₁F₁ (C₁) and G₂F₁ (C₂) [Surface irrigation with 100 per cent RDF] were tried in a RBD with four replications. Of the two systems evaluated, the proposition of bigger fruit size was higher with drip fertigation as compared to surface irrigation, except with lowest fertilizer dose. The TSS and titratable acidity were significantly more under surface irrigation, while the ascorbic acid content when measured at identical fertilizer levels was higher under drip. The quality of fruit was in general better under the paired row systems as compared to normal planting but the superiority was found significant in the case of fruit volume only. Among the different chemical parameters, TSS and ascorbic acid content decreased, while titratable acidity increased markedly with the reduction in fertilizer level, whereas the physical quality parameters did not undergo much changes.