Studies on yield and yield attributes in tomato and chilli using foliar application of oligo-chitosan

Abstract

Chitosan is a very important linear polysaccharide used in agricultural and horticultural practices primarily for plant defense and yield increase in recent decades. In this study, four levels of oligochitosan were used with control to optimize the level for obtaining maximum yield in tomato and chilli. It was observed that in case of tomato50 ppm chitosan level was found optimum in terms of yield (2.48 kg/plant). Positively linear correlation was also observed in leaves/plant (0.52), branch/plant (0.48), days to flowering (0.39) and fruit/plant (0.16) with the different levels of oligochitosan. The phenotypic coefficient of variance was found greater than the genotypic coefficient of variance. On the other hand, in case of chilli, 75 ppm chitosan level was found optimum in yield (333.01 g/plant). All the parameters of chilli i.e. plant height (49.36 cm), branch/plant (43.07), fruits/plant (151.86), fruit length (19.20 cm), fruit width (1.06 cm), the weight of 50 chilli (199.11 g) gave positive correlation with the different levels of oligochitosan. In case of yield, the phenotypic coefficient of variance was found greater than the genotypic coefficient of variance.