Field trial shows surface-planted seed cubes improve establishment and yield in brinjal, tomato, and chilli, highlighting a viable direct-sowing alternative.
Key Points
To evaluate the feasibility and field performance of seed cube technology comparing surface and subsurface planting methods across brinjal, tomato, and chilli crops.
Seed cubes were formulated using soil (700 g), sawdust (130 g), bone meal (80 g), vermicompost (40 g), and vesicular-arbuscular mycorrhiza (50 g) embedded with treated seeds.
Experiment I used a factorial randomized block design testing surface versus subsurface planting across three crops at a research station.
Experiment II evaluated surface versus subsurface planting across five farmer-field locations for each vegetable crop.
In Experiment I, surface planting achieved higher field establishment (27.2 vs subsurface plants 20 m⁻²), lower mortality (9.3%), greater fruit yield per plant (2.44 kg), and higher seed yield (368.9 kg ha⁻¹).
Brinjal achieved the highest field establishment (24.2 plants 20 m⁻² in Experiment I; 28.5 plants 20 m⁻² in Experiment II) and highest fruit yield (23.1 to 23.2 t acre⁻¹), while tomato yielded the highest fruit yield per plant (up to 3.145 kg).
Across farmer-field trials, surface placement maintained superior plant establishment (29.0 plants 20 m⁻²), lower mortality (21.3%), and increased fruit yield per plant (2.245 kg) compared to subsurface planting.