Effect of Coloured Plastic Mulches on Yield and Quality of Tomato (Solanum lycopersicum) in Central Himalayan Region

Plastic mulches are used nowadays to significantly increase crop yield due to ease of use, transportation, and storability. The main objective and aim of this investigation is to examine the role of colored plastic mulch on growth, quality, and yield attributing traits of tomato (Solanum lycopersicum) in the central Himalayan region. The field experiment contained mulches in red, black, yellow, silver, and a no mulch control from Oct 2019 to Feb 2020. Red plastic mulch improved growth, yield, and quality attributing characters compared to other mulches and control. Red mulched treatment maintained better soil moisture and better soil temperature (up to 6 °C) compared to control and other colored mulches. The yield of tomatoes ranged from 13.49 to 20.27 kg.m-2 with the maximum under red plastic mulch. A yield increase of 29.72 to 50.25 % was achieved using mulch as compared to control. The plant growth, quality, and flowering attributing traits also exhibited superiority under mulching over control with red mulch showing the best effect. Tomato fruits harvested from red mulch treatment exhibited the highest value of quality parameters such as TSS (5.20 °B), lycopene content (5.59 mg/100g), ascorbic acid content (16.86 mg/100g), and carotenoid content (3.51 mg/g FW).