Performance of Sweet Pepper (Capsicum Annuum L.) Varieties as Influenced by Nitrogen and Poultry Manure Fertilization in the Sudan Savanna
Performance of Sweet Pepper (Capsicum Annuum L.) Varieties as Influenced by Nitrogen and Poultry Manure Fertilization in the Sudan Savanna.
Abstract
Two field experiments were conducted during the 2011/2012 dry season at the Irrigation Research Station (IRS) of the Institute for Agricultural Research (IAR), Kadawa and Kadawa Village, Kano State.
Treatment evaluated consisted of two varieties of sweet pepper (California Wonder and Tattasai Dan-Garko), three nitrogen rates (50, 75 and 100 kg N ha-1) and three poultry manure rates (0, 3 and 6 t ha-1) which were factorially combined and laid in a randomized complete block design (RCBD), replicated three times.
It was observed that California Wonder had higher leaf area index (3.03) fruit diameter (5.00, 4.70 cm) and fresh fruit weight (8307.60 kg ha-1) than Tattasai Dan-Garko (2.14), (4.13, 4.20) and (6380.8 kg ha-1).
Growth and yield characters such as crop growth rate (8.30 and 8.01g/week) in both sites, plant height (17.70 cm) and fresh fruit weight (7535.70, 7544.1 kg ha-1) in Kadawa Village and combined,
while number of fruits per plant (10.00) in Kadawa Station were significantly influenced by application of 75 kg N ha-1.
Fruit length, number of branches and leaves, number of days to 50% flowering and net assimilatory rate were not significantly influenced by varying nitrogen rates.
Three tons per hectare of poultry manure had a significant effect on pepper fruit length (6.64 cm) and other growth characters such as leaf area index (4.81, 5.34) in both location, plant height (24.31 cm) and crop growth rate (8.90 g/week) in Kadawa Village.
Interactions between nitrogen and variety, poultry manure and variety gave taller plants (26.11 cm) at 8 WAT at Kadawa Station and application of 3 t ha-1 of poultry manure gave higher yield of pepper (8395.15 and 7436.79 kg ha-1) combined data at Kadawa Village.
Introduction
1.1 Background of Study
Peppers are vegetable crops belonging to the family Solanaceae and the genus Capsicum. They are indigenous to Central and South America. Columbus found them growing in West Indies but were introduced into Europe in the 16th century. (Agricultural Alternative, 2000).
Gibbon and Pain (1985) also reported that all Capsicums are of American origin, but they are now widely spread throughout the tropical and subtropical regions of the world.
Capsicum consists of approximately twenty two wild species and five domesticated species. The five domesticated specie include, C. annum L., C. baccatum L., C. chinensis L., C. pubescens L., and C. frutescens L., ( Bosland and Votava, 2000).
On the hand, Capsicum can be divided into several groups based on fruit/pod characteristics ranging in pungency, color, shape, intended use, flavor and size.
Despite their vast trait differences most cultivars of pepper commercially cultivated in the world belongs to the species C. annum L. (Smith et al.,1987).
It is one of the most important vegetables grown in Nigeria and other parts of sub humid and semi arid tropics (Aliyu, 2000).
Although the crop is widely cultivated in Nigeria, yield obtained by peasant farmers are often very low due to various production constraints such as lack of information on fertilizer application and non availability of fertilizers.
As a result low yield are obtained leading to exorbitant prices per unit weight (Uzo, 1984).
The crop can be grown on many kinds of soils ranging from fine sands through many loams, clay loams and silt loams but sandy loams and loams are preferred (Jaliya and Sani, 2010).
References
Agricultural Alternatives (2000) Bell Pepper Production. A publication developed by the small scale and part time farming project at Pennsylvania state. College of Agricultural Sciences, Agricultural Research and Cooperative Extension. USA P 1-4 Retrieved May 12, 2011, from http://horticulture.psu.edu/files/extension/bellpepper.pdf
Alabi, D.A (2006) Effects of Fertilizer, phosphorus and poultry droppings treatments on growth and nutrient components of pepper (Capsicum annum L). Department of Plant Science and Applied Zoology, Olabisi Onabanjo University Ago-Iwoye Nigeria. African J. Biotechnol. 5(8): pp 6716
Aleiv, D. A. (1972). The effect of fertilizers on yield and quality of egg plant. Hort Abstract 43
Aliyu, L. Ahmad M. K. and Ado, S. G. (1991) Relationship between some characters in chilli pepper (Capsicum frutescens) Capsicum Newsletter(s) 10:43-44pp.
Aliyu, L. and Kuchinda, N.C. (2002). Analysis of chemical composition of some organic manures and their effect on the yield and composition of pepper. Crop Research 23(2):362-368pp
