Phenological performance of tomato under microclimatic modification through mulching inside and outside the polyhouse

Effects of microclimatic modification under polyhouse and open condition with different plastic mulches and no mulch on phenological performance of tomato were investigated. Variations in height, number of primary branches, and leaf area index during the growth period and yield were observed at 15 days interval throughout the growing period and results reveal that microclimatic conditions inside the polyhouse favoured the growth and development of tomato plants inside the polyhouse compared to open field. Polyhouse plants had higher number of flowers/plant, number of fruits/cluster and fruit yield over open field condition. Among the mulches, black and silver black mulches performed better in terms of morphological characteristics. The results revealed that performance in terms of tomato yield inside the polyhouse was comparatively superior to grown in open condition and yield obtained was nearly 2 times higher.