EVALUATING THE IMPLEMENTATION OF DIFFERENT BORON DOSES ON GROWTH AND YIELD OF GOLDEN CHERRY TOMATO

A pot research was conducted at Horticulture Farm, Sher-e-Bangla Agricultural University, Dhaka during the period of October 2022 to February 2023 to study the effect of boron levels on growth and yield of golden cherry tomato, as it is a newly introduced variety in Bangladesh. 25 days old, transplanted golden cherry tomato variety was used as a planting material, and three different treatments/doses of boron were selected in this experiment. The doses were viz.; B₀: Control (No Boron), B₁: 1.25g/L and B₂: 2.0g/L and it was arranged in a Completely Randomized Design (CRD) with six replications. 18 half drums/pots were used to conduct the research work. All the treatments received similar intercultural operations and application of irrigation as well as recommended doses of basic fertilizers. Among the treatments, the highest plant height (115.22 cm), leaf number (50.22), branch number (12.33) and cluster number (8.4) at 40 DAT; maximum chlorophyll percentage or SPAD value (52.4), the longest period for 50% flowering (24.3 days), the longest period for first fruit set (28.3 days), single cluster weight (0.52 kg), single fruit weight (7.9 g), number of flowers per plant (1818.8), fruit number per plant (1360), fruit length (26.56 mm), fruit diameter (24.7 mm), fruit set (%) (74.24 %) and brix % (6.3) were found from B2 treatment. On the contrary, lowest plant height (104.06 cm), leaf number (40.33), branch number (9.22) and cluster number (6.9) at 40 DAT; maximum chlorophyll percentage or SPAD value (48.7), the shortest period for 50% flowering (22.3 days), shortest period (27.0 days) for first fruit set, single cluster weight (0.47 kg), single fruit weight (6.7 g), number of flowers per plant (750.2), fruit number per plant (458), fruit length (25.0 mm), fruit diameter (22.4 mm), fruit set (%) (60.88 %) and brix % (5.7) were recorded from B0 treatment. In view of the overall performances, the application of boron at 2.0g/L dose provided the best results in case of improving growth, yield and quality of golden cherry tomato.