International Journal of Horticulture, 2025, Vol.15, No.3, 99-104 http://hortherbpublisher.com/index.php/ijh 100 sustainable crop production as it maintains the soil health as well as soil fertility in long term (Pandey and Chandra, 2013). INM is eco-friendly, and when used in crops, has no negative effects on the ecology and human health. Adaptation of INM practices besides increasing productivity, also improves soil health. INM has also been reported to correct micronutrient deficiency (Ramesh et al., 2023). Plant yield is a very complicated trait that depends on many different factors. As a result, understanding the degree to which yield and its characteristics are correlated is extremely useful in the field of crop improvement (Naveen et al., 2017). Assessing the interrelationships among a variety of component characters is a necessary step toward achieving the desired outcome (Sinha et al., 2020). 2 Materials and Methods 2.1 Experimental site The research was conducted in Dhulikhel municipality, Karve. This region lies in temperate mid hill of Nepal situated within 27°37’ North latitude to 85°32’ longitude with an altitude of 1,550 meter above sea level. The experimental site lies in the subtropical zone of Nepal. It is characterized by three distinct seasons: rainy season (June to October), winter season (November to Feb), and spring season (March to April). The maximum temperature during winter season rises up to 25 °C (end of February) whereas during the hottest months (May-June) it reaches up to 35 °C. The Rainy season starts from June and lasts up to October, June -July receives the highest amount of rainfall. 2.2 Experimental design The research was carried out in Randomized Complete Block Design (RCBD) with eight treatments each having three replications. The field area was divided into 24 plots. Space between plots within one replication was maintained at 0.50 m and the space between replications was maintained at 1 m. Each plot was planted with 20 tomato plants containing a total of 480 tomato plants in 24 plots. The spacing between row-to-row and plant-to-plant was maintained at 0.75 m and 0.45 m respectively. Five plants were chosen from each replication for data collection. The sample plants were chosen from among the plants that remained after the border plants were excluded. The required data were collected from the sample plants at required time intervals. 2.3 Treatment details The experiment comprised eight different nutrient management treatments designed to evaluate the effect of integrated nutrient management on the growth and yield of tomato (Table 1). These treatments included the application of various organic and inorganic fertilizers, both individually and in combination, along with a control (no nutrient input). The organic sources consisted of well-decomposed farmyard manure (FYM), vermicompost, and poultry manure, while the inorganic source was the recommended dose of chemical fertilizers (NPK at 200:180:80 kg/ha). Some treatments involved combinations of organic and inorganic fertilizers to assess their synergistic effects. Table 1 Description of nutrient management treatments applied in the experiment Treatments Description T1 Well-decomposed Farmyard Manure (FYM) at 30 t/ha T2 Recommended NPK fertilizer at 200:180:80 kg/ha T3 Vermicompost at 20 t/ha T4 Poultry manure at 10 t/ha T5 FYM at 15 t/ha + 50% of Recommended NPK T6 Vermicompost at 10 t/ha + 50% of Recommended NPK T7 FYM at 7.5 t/ha + 25% of Recommended NPK + Vermicompost at 5 t/ha + Poultry manure at 2.5 t/ha T8 Control (no organic or inorganic nutrient application)
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