INFLUENCE OF SUCKER PRUNING WITH OLD LEAF REMOVAL ON GROWTH AND YIELD OF TOMATO

An experiment was conducted at Horticulture farm, Sher-e-Bangla Agricultural University, Dhaka-1207, Bangladesh during the period from October 2015 to March 2016. BARI-14 tomato was used to evaluate of sucker pruning with old leaf removal on growth and yield of tomato. Four pruning treatments, viz., P₀=Control, P₁ = Sucker pruning, P₂= Old leaf removal, P₃= Sucker pruning and old leaf removal were used in this experiment which was arranged in a Randomized Complete Block Design (RCBD) with three replications. Maximum plant height, single fruit weight, yield per plant and yield per ha (95.8cm, 92.2g, 3.8kg and 95.5 t, respectively) were found in P₃ whereas minimum plant height, single fruit weight, yield per plant and yield per ha were observed (75.3cm , 90.6 g, 3.2 kg and 93.7 t, respectively) in P₀. So sucker pruning with old leaf removal as well as P₃treatment could be regarded as a potential management practices for increasing tomato production in Bangladesh.