BIONATURE

Tomato is a nutritionally important and economically valuable crop that requires healthy and uniform seedlings for successful cultivation. However, traditional open-field nurseries often face germination and seedling-quality challenges due to environmental and soil-related factors. The objective of this study was to evaluate the efficacy of Arka Microbial Consortium (AMC) in enhancing seed germination, seedling growth, and vigour of tomato seedlings raised in pro-tray nursery conditions through on-farm evaluation. This research was performed during two consecutive Rabi seasons, 2021–22 and 2022–23, at 20 farmers’ fields across five villages of the Kuchaman and Maulasar blocks in Didwana-Kuchaman district of Rajasthan to evaluate the effect of Arka Microbial Consortium (AMC) on tomato seedling production under pro-tray nursery conditions. In this experiment, three treatments, viz., T₁ – Farmers’ practice (control), T₂ – AMC @ 4 g kg⁻¹ coco peat, and T₃ – AMC @ 6 g kg⁻¹ coco peat, were evaluated. Application of AMC significantly influenced the germination and seedling growth parameters of tomato. The results revealed that among the various treatments, T₃-AMC @ 6 g kg⁻¹ coco peat resulted in minimum days to germination (4.20 days) and days required to attain the transplantable stage (23.80 days). The same treatment also observed maximum germination percentage (94.50 %), seedling height (15.11 cm), root length (4.36 cm), number of leaves/seedling (3.88), seedling vigour index (1427.05) and vigour improvement over control (66.35 %). Whereas, in the farmer’s practice (control) recorded the least values for all the observed parameters. The findings of the study indicated that coco peat treated with Arka Microbial Consortium @ 6 g kg⁻¹ significantly improved seedling vigour and nursery performance of tomato seedlings. The present investigation demonstrated that application of Arka Microbial Consortium @ 6 g kg⁻¹ coco peat was the most effective treatment for improving tomato seedling quality under pro-tray nursery conditions. The treatment enhanced germination, seedling growth, and vigour while reducing the time required to reach the transplantable stage. Hence, AMC-enriched coco peat may be recommended as a sustainable nursery management practice for the production of healthy tomato seedlings.