Effects of Bioformulations on Growth, Yield and Fruit Quality of Tomato (Solanum lycopersicum L.)

A field experiment was conducted during the 2025–2026 rabi season at Suresh Gyan Vihar University, Jaipur, Rajasthan, India, to compare soil-drench and foliar applications of Panchagavya, Jeevamrutha and a seaweed-based product for tomato (Solanum lycopersicum L.) cultivar Abhilaash. Thirteen treatments, including an untreated comparison, were arranged in a randomised block design with three replications. Among the treatment means, soil drenching with 0.8% seaweed extract (T4) gave the greatest plant height (91.84 cm), fruit yield (633.86 q ha⁻¹), total soluble solids (5.07 °Brix), ascorbic acid content (18.56 mg per 100 g) and net return (₹205,166.20 ha⁻¹). For these outcomes, differences from the untreated control exceeded the corresponding reported critical differences at the 5% level. However, the yield difference between T4 and soil drenching with 0.6% seaweed extract (T3) was 25.34 q ha⁻¹, below the reported critical difference of 70.73 q ha⁻¹. T4 and T3 were also not statistically distinguishable according to the reported critical differences for total soluble solids, ascorbic acid or net return. Thus, T4 produced the highest numerical means under the tested conditions, but a statistically established advantage over the adjacent seaweed-drench concentration was not demonstrated for the principal production and quality outcomes. The findings are specific to the cultivar, location and season studied.