Abstract
Tomato saplings, irrigated with municipal raw sewage (RS) and treated sewage (TS), compared to that of potable water (PW) on sandy soils at Kalpakkam in Tamil nadu (India) showed significant increase in plant-height, number of branches, leaves and fruit yield in the plants irrigated with raw sewage during the crop season of three months. These growth parameters showed close relationship with the nutrient contents of municipal RS, TS and PW; the former being characterized by relatively higher pH, electrical conductivity (µS/cm), total dissolved solids, total suspended solids, total hardness, chloride, sulphate, BOD, COD, calcium, magnesium, sodium, potassium, bicarbonates, total alkalinity, nitrate, phosphate and carbonates compared to that of the TS and PW, which probably enhanced the growth traits.