Effect of N solution concentration, water rate and transient starvation on sweet paprika dry matter production and yield1

Abstract

Abstract Sweet paprika response to water and nitrogen has not been reported in the literature, even though the crop is widely used in the food dyes industry. The objective of the present work was to determine the effects of water rate (IR), N concentration in water (CN), and transient starvation on total processable yield, yield quality and dry matter production and partitioning among fruits, leaves and stems. The experiment was carried out in 10‐liter pots filled with volcanic scoria and consisted of 4 × 3 IR × CN treatments plus 3 starvation treatments. In all treatments, about 95% of the total dry matter found in the tops of the plants was located in the fruits. Plants that gave good yields (100–120 and 170–210 g/plant high quality and total processable pods yield, respectively) were characterized at harvest time by 4.2–4.8% N in leaves, 1.8–1.9% N in fruits, 2% N in stems and 1.0–1.3% N in roots, and their total N consumption was 4.5–5.2 g/plant. Diminishing N application rates had only a small effect...