Tomato

Nursery sowing in June–July for the kharif crop, September–October for rabi, and January–February for a short summer crop — with transplanting 25–30 days later, once seedlings have 4–5 true leaves. Three overlapping seasons are why tomato supply, and price, swing so hard through the year.

Roughly 300–400 g of hybrid seed per hectare, raised in a nursery, gives enough seedlings for about 25,000–30,000 plants per hectare at typical staked spacing (60 × 45 cm).

Staking and drip irrigation together lift marketable yield by 30–40% by keeping fruit off wet soil, where it rots, and improving airflow around the canopy, which cuts fungal disease pressure. Setting stakes or a trellis before or right at transplanting captures the full benefit — retrofitting it onto a sprawling crop only recovers part of the gain.

Drip irrigation is close to standard practice on commercial staked tomato, since it cuts water use by 40–50% against flood irrigation while giving even, crack-free fruit. The stage to protect above all others is flowering and fruit set (25–45 days after transplanting) — both drought and waterlogging there directly drop flowers and young fruit.

A common recommendation for a staked hybrid crop is 150:100:100 kg/ha of N:P:K, with roughly a quarter of the nitrogen at transplanting and the rest split through the picking season. Blossom-end rot — a dark, sunken patch at the fruit’s base — is caused by uneven calcium uptake from inconsistent watering, not a disease; a calcium chloride or calcium nitrate foliar spray from first fruit set prevents it.

Most likely tomato leaf curl virus, spread exclusively by whitefly. There is no in-season cure — control comes entirely from managing whitefly (yellow sticky traps, insect-proof nursery netting, and a systemic insecticide started soon after transplanting) and, where available, choosing a virus-tolerant hybrid.

No — tomato has no Minimum Support Price. Its price swings harder than almost any other vegetable because good fruit set has a fairly narrow temperature band, which forces the crop into three staggered seasons rather than a spread-out year-round supply — a glut in any one season can crash the mandi rate within days. The live mandi price on this page is the most useful real-time signal for deciding when to sell.

Look for a clean, round entry hole in developing fruit, usually near the stem end, with visible frass (droppings) at the entrance. Sprays cannot reach the caterpillar once it is inside the fruit, so pheromone traps for early monitoring and a Bt spray on young larvae before they bore in are the more effective window for control.

250–400 quintals per hectare for a staked, drip-irrigated hybrid crop under good management — well below that for an unstaked, flood-irrigated crop of the same variety, which is the single biggest reason two growers with the same seed can see very different returns.

Only if you grew an open-pollinated variety such as Pusa Ruby, and kept it isolated from other tomato varieties during flowering. Seed saved from a hybrid does not breed true and yields poorly the following season — buy fresh hybrid seed each time instead.

"Breaker" is the point where fruit colour just begins to turn from green — that is when to pick fruit headed to a distant market, since it ripens further in transit. For local or same-day sale, pick fully coloured, firm fruit instead. Picking runs in rounds every 4–7 days for 8–10 weeks or more on a well-managed staked crop, starting around 60–70 days after transplanting.

Tomato has a short shelf life — 1–2 weeks at room temperature — so keep picked fruit shaded and move it to market quickly rather than holding it. Cold storage at 10–13°C extends this to around 3–4 weeks; note this is warmer than most vegetable cold stores, since tomato itself is chill-sensitive below about 10°C.

PM-KISAN is not crop-specific — any landholding farmer family meeting the scheme’s land-record and eligibility criteria qualifies, tomato or otherwise. See the Related schemes section below.

Yes, under PMFBY (Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana), where tomato is included in your state’s notified crop list. Tomato is classified as an annual horticultural crop, so the farmer’s premium is capped at 5% of the sum insured. Enrolment is seasonal — check your state’s cut-off date and notified crop list before transplanting is complete.

Arka Rakshak tops out highest on-farm among widely grown hybrids, at 350–450 q/ha, with the added benefit of triple disease resistance — staked private hybrids follow close behind at 300–400 q/ha. An open-pollinated variety like Pusa Ruby yields meaningfully less but lets you save seed, which suits a small plot better than a push for maximum yield.

At the typical staked spacing of 60 × 45 cm, that works out to roughly 10,000–12,000 plants per acre (25,000–30,000 per hectare) — the 300–400 g of hybrid seed per hectare raised in the nursery is calculated to produce this many healthy seedlings.

Fruit cracking almost always comes from irregular watering — a dry spell followed by a heavy watering or rain — rather than from a disease. Consistent, even soil moisture through fruit development, which drip irrigation delivers far more reliably than flood irrigation, is the main prevention.

Yes, but expect meaningfully lower marketable yield — an unstaked, sprawling crop loses more fruit to soil-contact rot and fungal disease from poor airflow. Staking and drip together are what lift marketable yield by 30–40%, and skipping staking gives up most of that gain even if every other input stays the same.

Mancozeb or chlorothalonil for early blight, sprayed at first appearance and repeated every 7–10 days through a favourable spell. For late blight, mancozeb works preventively before lesions appear, switching to a curative combination like cymoxanil + mancozeb once they do — the same pathogen and similar chemistry as potato late blight.

A dark, dull purple-green tinge on the leaves, especially in young transplants during cool weather, usually points to phosphorus deficiency. It is most visible early in the season before roots are fully established, and correcting the basal phosphorus dose at transplanting is the main prevention.

Rotate out of tomato and other solanaceous crops (potato, brinjal, chilli) for at least two seasons on any field with a bacterial wilt or root-knot nematode history — maize or another cereal makes a good non-host break crop. Intercropping with a legume in the early weeks before the tomato canopy closes is also common and adds a small early return from the same land.