Effect of different mulches and biofertilizers on disease incidence/severity and yield of tomato

Studies on effect of different mulches and biofertilizers on disease incidence/severity in tomato were carried out during the years 2011 and 2012. The experiment comprised of three varieties (V₁-naveen 2000⁺, V₂-sun-7711 and V₃-solan lalima), three mulches (M₀-no mulch, M₁-Pine needle mulch and M₂- Black polythene) and three biofertilizers (B₀-recommended nPK, B₁-100% nPK + Azotobacter (1g/plant) + PsB (1g/plant) and B₂-75% nPK + Azotobacter (1g/plant) + PsB (1g/plant). Minimum incidence of buckeye rot was observed in sun-7711 while, severity of early blight, bacterial spot and septoria blight was minimum in solan lalima. among the mulch materials, use of black polythene proved to be the most efficacious against buck eye rot and foliar diseases. With respect to biofertilizers, B₂ resulted in minimum incidence of buckeye rot and severity of foliar diseases. The first order interactions viz., variety x biofertilizer, biofertilizer x mulch and variety x mulch significantly affected most of the characters under study and the treatment combination V₂B₁recorded minimum buckeye rot incidence ^M2 while, severity of foliar diseases of tomato was minimum in treatment combination V₃B₁M₂. however, the yield was maximum in the treatment combination V₂B₂M₂ (1037.33 q/ha) followed by V₂B₁M₂(978.22 q/ha).