Location and period of the study: A pot experiment was conducted at Horticulture farm, Department of Horticulture, Sher-e-Bangla Agricultural University, Dhaka-1207, Bangladesh from October 2013 to March 2014.
Treatments of the experiment: Eggshell viz. T1 (No eggshell); T2 (100 g/pot eggshell) and T3 (200 g/pot eggshell) were used on the experiment using Completely Randomized Design with five replications.
Genetic materials: Seeds of BARI tomato 14 were collected from Bangladesh Agricultural Research Institute, Gazipur, Dhaka, Bangladesh and seedlings were raised on the seedbed at SAU Horticultural farm.
Pot size: Pots were filled up 7 days before transplanting on 12th October 2013. The size of each pot was 25 cm (10 inches) in diameter and 20 cm (8 inches) in height.
Fertilization: Manures and fertilizers were used as recommended by Bangladesh Agricultural Research Institute. Entire amount of organic manure, TSP, Gypsum, Borax and half of the MP were applied during final soil preparation. The remaining half of MP and entire urea applied in three equal installments, 1st at 15 days after planting, 2nd at flowering and the 3rd at fruit maturity stages.
Application eggshells: To make eggshell powder, boil eggshells with membranes in hot water for 5- 10 min to kill pathogens, then air and sun dried for 5 days after that dried in oven at 110° C temperature for 15 min. Eggshells were then grind into fine powder in a blender. The powders of eggshells were used two times at 20 and 40 days after transplanting for growing tomato plants. Eggshell powders were soaked in water (1 L for each treatment) overnight. After that four holes were made around each plant and eggshells powders soaked water were poured at the holes.
Parameters and data collection: Data were collected on plant height, number of leaves, number of branches, chlorophyll content, days to first flowering (visual observation), number of calcium deficient symptom showing leaves, percentage abnormal fruit, number of harvested fruit, single fruit weight, yield/plant, calculated yield (t/ha), degree of brix and shelf life. Electronic precision balance was used for measuring fruit weight and yield/plant respectively.
Statistical analysis: Collected data were statistically analyzed using MSTAT-C program and mean was calculated. Differences between treatments were evaluated by Least Significance Difference (LSD) test at 1% level of significance.