Effect of Transplanting Dates and Varieties on the Vegetative Growth, Yield, and Yield Components of Tomato (Solanum lycopersicum L.)

The study was carried out in the Research field of the Regional Agricultural Research Station (RARS), Hathazari, Chattogram, Bangladesh from November 2019 to April 2020 to observe the effect of transplanting date and variety for tomato production. Eight open-pollinated tomato varieties viz. BARI tomato-2, BARI tomato-3, BARI tomato-14, BARI tomato-15, Marglobe, Roma VF, Riograndi, and Khattabegun were considered as the factor A and two transplanting dates viz. 18th December 2019 and 18th January 2020 were considered as factor B. The study was laid out in factorial Randomized Complete Block Design (RCBD) with three replications. Different transplanting dates and varieties showed significant effects on the vegetative growth and yield of tomato. In 18th December transplanting, the highest number of fruits per plant was recorded in BARI Tomato-3 (46.87), followed by BARI Tomato-14 (43.22), while the lowest number of fruits per plant was recorded in variety Marglobe (13.00). Khattabegun variety had the maximum number of fruits per plant (14.17), followed by BARI tomato-3 (14.02) and BARI tomato-14 (13.97) on transplanting date 18th January. In 18th December transplanting, the highest yield was obtained from BARI tomato-14 (38.55 ton ha-1), followed by BARI tomato-3 (38.16 ton ha-1), while the lowest yield was found in variety Riograndi (9.17 ton ha-1). The highest yield was recorded in BARI tomato-15 (12.10 ton ha-1), while the lowest yield was observed in local variety Khattabegun (6.25 ton ha-1) on transplanting date 18th January. Therefore, it is concluded that BARI Tomato-14 and BARI Tomato-3 with a combination of transplanting date in 18th December was noted as the best combination to get the optimum yield of tomato.