Effect of different fertigation levels on plant growth and fruit yield of sweet pepper grown under greenhouse conditions

Abstract

The present experiment was carried out with six different combination of fertigation treatments viz., T2 (75% RDF); T3 (100% RDF); T4 (125% RDF); T5 (75% RDF + 75% recommended dose of micronutrients (RDM i.e. 0.5% (5 ml/l) of micronutrient mixture.); T6 (100% RDF + 100% RDM); T7 (125% RDF + 125% RDM ) and a control treatment T1 (Soil application of NPK i.e., 100% recommended dose of fertilizers). A micronutrient mixture, Agromin consisting of Zn, Cu, Mn, B, Mo was applied at recommended dose i.e. 0.5% (5 mg/l). Maximum crop yield of 75.51 t ha-1 in cv. Nishat-1 and 85.34 tha-1 in Shalimar Capsicum Hybrid-2 (SCH-2) was obtained with fertigation treatment T5 which resulted in 42.28% and 46.63% increased yield in cultivar and hybrid, respectively as compared to control treatment T1. Maximum number of harvested fruits per plant were obtained in T5 viz., 21.46 and 23.20 in cultivar and hybrid, respectively. The treatment T6 recorded maximum fruit weight of 59.36g and 63.07 g in cv. Nishat-1 and SCH-2, respectively. Leaf area (cm2) and leaf chlorophyll content (mg/100g) were higher under higher levels of fertigation treatments.