Abstract
Tomato is known for its remarkable contents of vitamins, minerals and antioxidants. A pot experiment was performed during the winter-summer transition from December 2022 to April 2023 combining low to high fertilizer rates and plant growth regulators (PGRs). The objective was to decrease the utilization of artificial fertilizers through the application of PGRs. Besides recommended dose (12 g of urea, 10 g of TSP, 5 g of MoP, 3 g of Gypsum, 0.5 g of ZnSO(4), and 0.5 g of Boric acid per plant), the experiment involved applying fertilizers at 80 %, 90 %, and 110 % of the recommendation plus a control (farmers practice). Furthermore, PGRs including gibberellic acid (GA(3)), naphthalene acetic acid (NAA), 4-chlorophenoxy acetic acid (4-CPA) and salicylic acid (SA) were applied at a concentration of 50 ppm. Setting the experiment in a factorial randomized complete block design (RCBD), data on vegetative and reproductive plant behaviors were registered to assess the interactive influence of inorganic nutrients and PGRs on tomato growth and development. The dataset obtained from the experiment focuses on how plant growth regulators like GA(3) and SA significantly ameliorated the reduced chemical fertilizer induced nutrient deficit. Plants had superior growth and yield with GA(3) and SA applications, whereas NAA and 4-CPA accounted for inferior crop health and production even lower than that of control (no PGRs). In addition, as a function of PGR treatment, the tomato plants showed no distinguishable variations in vegetative and reproductive behaviors for fertilizer doses from 80 % to 110 % of recommendation. The dataset, thus, can encourage the farmers, researchers and policymakers for sustainable tomato cultivation with minimal inorganic fertilization through incorporating judicious PGRs. Future studies should focus on cellular and metabolic changes in tomato after PGR-fertilizer interactive use.