Growth and yield of tomato, Napier grass and sugarcane crops as influenced by wastewater irrigation in Mysore, Karnataka, India

The effect of wastewater irrigation on plant growth and yield of tomato, Napier grass and sugarcane crops was compared with that of ground water irrigation. Treatments included untreated wastewater (UWW) treated wastewater (TWW) and ground water (GW) as control. The results obtained, plant height, number of fruits/plant, dry biomass g/plant and number of branches/plant of tomato (78.46 cm, 45.88, 15.49 and 11.41) and (75.13 cm, 41.48, 14.42 and 10.28) were significantly higher in the UWW and TWW compared to GW. The UWW and TWW irrigated Napier grass gave the highest growth and yield, compared to that of GW irrigation. Plant height, number of leaves/plant, leaf length, leaf width and number of tiller were 188.46 cm, 83.62, 93.62 cm, 2.52 and 13.2 in UWW and 182.68 cm, 69.75, 88.67cm, 2.29 and 10.39 in TWW and these are significantly higher as compared to that of GW irrigation. Wastewater irrigation of sugarcane increased cane length, number of nodes/cane, number of leaves, cane diameter and cane weight significantly as compared to control GW are 191.86 cm, 22.48, 39.3 and 2.30 cm in UWW and 149.4 cm, 20.54, 27.53 and 2.22 cm in TWW and compared to that of GW irrigation.