Effect of Sugar Mill Wastewater on Vegetative Characters of Lycopersicon esculentum Mill. Var. S-22.

Abstract

Sugar industry wastewater was used as irrigation medium in five different concentrations i.e. 20% as T1, 40% as T2, 60% as T3, 80% as T4 and 100% as T5. The vegetative characters studied were height of the plant, length of petiole, length of lamina, breadth of lamina, length of stomatal aperture, breadth of stomatal aperture and number of stomata per unit area. Height of the plant was found to increase with the treatment of sugar industry effluent and maximum increase was recorded as 14.60 per cent inT3 treatment. Maximum increase in the length of petiole was noted in T3 treatment and it was 15.19 per cent. Length and breadth of lamina was found to increase with treatment of sugar industry effluent and maximum increase were noted in T3 treatment and it was 38.09 and 8.41 per cent respectively. Length of stomatal aperture was almost unaffected with the treatment of sugar industry effluent, a little increase was recorded in T1 treatment and it was 2.43 per cent. While the treatment T2, T3, T4 and T5 showed a little decrease in the length of stomatal aperture and it was 0.39, 0.68, 1.26 and 4.56 per cent respectively over the control. Breadth of stomatal aperture irrigated with different concentration of sugar industry effluent was made. Treatments T1, T2 and T3 significantly enhance the breadth of stomatal aperture by 6.85, 14.42 and 15.30 per cent. Treatment T4 showed a decrease of 0.34 per cent over control. The T5 treatment decreases the breadth of stomatal aperture by 8.63 per cent as compared to control. Number of stomata per unit area was also found to increase with the irrigation of different concentration of sugar industry effluent and maximum increase was 24.40 per cent in T3 treatment. It was observed that T3 treatment was found to enhance the maximum vegetative growth in almost all the parameters taken in to consideration except length of stomatal aperture. It is concluded that the concentration up to 60 per cent favor the vegetative growth of Lycopersicon esculentum Mill. Var S-22. The concentration above 60 per cent showed toxic effect on the vegetative growth of Tomato plants.