THE EFFECT OF BIOLOGICAL AND INANIMATE (PLASTIC) MULCHES ON PLANT DEVELOPMENT AND YIELD INCREASE OF TOMATO CV. NAVEEN 2000+ UNDER UTTARAKHAND HILLS

A field trial was conducted at Krishi Vigyan Kendra, Pithoragarh (Uttarakhand) during the summer session of 2024 and 2025 for the study “the effect of biological and inanimate (plastic) mulches on plant development and yield increase of Tomato Cv. Naveen 2000+ under Uttarakhand Hills”. The most common types of inorganic mulch are rocks or gravel, plastic, fabric and rubber sheets. Inorganic or inanimate mulches do not decompose. The most common types of biological mulch are compost, tree bark, wood chips, leaves, grass, pine needles, straw, sawdust, hulls etc. Biological mulches easily decompose and provide nutrients to plants. The experiment was laid out as Randomized Block Design (RBD) with five replications. The experiment includes eight treatments viz., T1- Black polyethylene mulch (30 Microns), T2- Silver polyethylene mulch (25 Microns), T3- Pasture mulch (10 ton hectare-1), T4- Paddy straw mulch (10 ton hectare-1), T5- Wheat straw mulch (10 ton hectare-1), T6- Wild grass leaves mulch (10 ton hectare-1), T7- Grass leaves trash (which are used for the cow/buffalo to sleep at night): 10 ton hectare-1 and T8- Control (Without mulch). The result showed that the treatment T1- Black polyethylene mulch (30 microns) was found to be best among the various mulch treatments and recorded higher values for plant height, days taken to first flowering, number of branches plant-1, days taken to first harvesting and the treatment T6- Wild grass leaves mulch (10 ton hectare-1) was found to be recorded higher values for fruit weight (gram), number of fruits plant-1, fruit yield plant-1 (kilogram), number of fruits cluster-1, fruit yield plot-1 (kilogram) and fruit yield hectare-1 (ton).