Varietal Evaluation and Assessment of Plastic Mulches for Growth, Yield and Fruit Quality of Tomato (Solanum lycopersicum L.) Under Protected Environment

Different genotypes and mulches are readily available in the market but Indian farmers are unaware about the performance of these genotypes and mulches in a particular region under protected environment. Therefore, considering the foregoing circumstances, the experiment was performed at Vegetable Research Farm, Department of Vegetable Science, Khalsa College, Amritsar in the spring-summer season 2022-2023 in Factorial Randomized Block Design comprising of 15 treatment combinations having five levels of mulches i.e. double shaded plastic mulch (M1), black plastic mulch (M2), red plastic mulch (M3), yellow plastic mulch (M4) and no mulch (M5) and three genotypes i.e. EZ-9003 (G1), NS-4266 (G2) and check PTH-1 (G3). The objective of the research was to study the effect of different plastic mulches on the growth, yield, and quality of tomato genotypes and to identify the most promising genotype(s) under the protected environment. The outcomes revealed that double-shaded plastic mulch surpassed other mulches for all the growth and yield-related parameters except days to first picking. Based on mean performance, significant variations have been observed in all the genotypes for various attributes which convey that PTH-1 (check) and NS-4266 are the best genotypes for growth, yield and its related traits taken under study. Biochemical analysis discovered that red and black plastic mulches surpass other treatments, whereas NS-4266 performed well for pericarp thickness and lycopene content, while check PTH-1 and EZ-9003 were best for processing purpose. The two-way interaction of Mulch (M) × Genotypes (G) was found non-significant for all the parameters omitting ascorbic acid content. The maximum net returns and B: C ratio were obtained in genotype NS-4266 and double-shaded plastic mulch under protected conditions for the agro-climatic region of Punjab. Therefore, double-shaded plastic mulch and genotypes PTH-1 (check) and NS-4266 are recommended to the farmers of Punjab to get maximum yield and returns from small holdings of land through protected cultivation.