Vol. 12, Special Issue 8 (2023)

The study "Effect of shoot pruning and truss retention in hybrid seed production of Tomato (Solanum lycopersicon L.)" was conducted in a randomized block design with three replications to evaluate the performance of different treatments on plant growth, fruit quality, seed quality and yield in parental lines of variety Arka Rakshak. The experiment included ten treatments of shoot pruning (keeping 2, 3, 4 shoots /plant) and truss retention (keeping 4, 6, 8 trusses/ plant) and a control.

The B:C ratio is a key parameter for finding out the cost-effectiveness of any treatment. Treatment T₁ (two shoot retention and four truss retention) had the highest gross return (Rs 790300/ha), and highest cost of cultivation (Rs 260169 /ha) was found in T₃ (two shoot and eight truss retention). Maximum benefit: cost ratio was obtained with T₁ (3.12:1) followed by T₂ (2.64:1) and T₄ (2.51:1) whereas minimum was found with T₁₀ (1.02:1).