Agronomic response of two experimental varieties of habanero chili in the application of band vermicomposting

Abstract

The habanero chili pepper has great productive potential in Mexico, with an annual growth of 12.5% ​​in the planted area in the last five years. Objective: was to evaluate the agronomic response of two experimental varieties of habanero chili called HNC-6 orange color and HCC-8 chocolate color, belonging to the Center for Training and Development in Seed Technology. Methodology: the study was established under five doses of vermicompost, 0, 0.3, 0.6, 0.9 and 1.2 kg plant-1 using a completely random design with a 2x5 factorial arrangement. Results: the HNC-6 variety had a better agronomic response than HCC-8, its yield was 95 % higher, the number of fruits per plant 84 %, fruit length (FL) 25 %, pericarp thickness 28 %, fruit firmness 11 %, and average fruit weight 4.7 %. The HCC-8 variety exceeded the height of HNC-6 by 38 % and the fruit diameter (FD) by 14 %. The vermicompost doses exerted a similar effect on both varieties. In conclusion, the experimental variety HNC-6 showed a better agronomic response under the conditions tested. The vermicompost doses exerted a response effect and similar trend in the two experimental varieties of habanero pepper tested, the significant interactions found in FL, FD, and total soluble solids indicate that the application of vermicompost influenced the quality of the fruits in some aspects. Conclusions: the main factors that determined the response of the crop are its genetic component in response to the environment and the degree of maturity of the vermicompost.