Season :

• May – June (Aadi pattam)


• December – January (Thai pattam)

Seed Rate :

       Varieties : 300 - 350 g / ha
           Hybrids : 100 - 150 g / ha

Seed Treatment

• Treat the seeds with Trichoderma viride 4 g with rice kanji coating or fungicide treatment like Carbendazim 2 g per kg of seeds 24 hours before sowing. Sow the seeds in lines at 10 cm apart in raised nursery beds and cover with sand.

Raised bed Nursery

• Soil should be of fine tilth and free from weeds.
• Raised nursery beds should be prepared with height of 10-15 cm width of 1 m and of convenient length
• Drench with 4% formaldehyde or 0.3% copper oxychloride to kill the pathogenic spores in the soil.
• Solarization of nursery bed with white polythene sheet also check the nematode infection and weed growth
• Two parts of fine red earth, one part of sand and one part of FYM can be incorporated to each bed to improve aeration and fertility of the soil
• Lines are made on the nursery beds at 10-15 cm distance and line sowing is practiced
• After sowing the seeds are covered with fine sand or powdered FYM
• Nursery beds are covered with paddy straw and irrigation is given with rose can

          Tomato seedlings (25 days) grown under conventional nursery bed bed

Pro tray nursery

• To cover 1 ha, prepare the nursery area for 3 cents with slanting slope of 2 % .
• The nursery area should be covered with 50 % shade net and sides using 40/50 mesh insect proof nylon net.
• Form raised beds of 1 m width and convenient length and place HDPV pipes at 2m interval for protection with polythene sheets during rainy months.
• Mix sterilized cocopeat @ 300 kg with 5 kg neem cake along with Azospirillum and Phosphobacteria each @ 1 kg.
• Approximately 1.2 kg of cocopeat is required for filling one protray. 238 protrays (98 cells)
• 23,334 seedlings, are required for one hectare with a spacing of 90 x 60 x 60 cm in paired row system.
• Sow the treated seed in protrays @ one seed per cell.
• Cover the seed with cocopeat and keep the trays one above the other and cover with a polythene sheet till germination starts
• After six days, place the protrays with germinated seeds individually on the raised beds inside the shade net
• Water with rosecan everyday and drench with NPK 19:19:19 @ 0.3% (3 g/l) at 18 days after sowing

Tomato seedlings at transplantable stage (25 days old)

Treated Tomato Seed

Line sowing in nursery bed

Mulching of nursery bed

Uniformly germinated tomato seedlings in protray

Easy handling of protray seedlings