Growth and Development of Green pepper (<i> Capsicum annuum</i> L) as Influenced by Planting Dates and Fertilizer Application in Owo, South West Nigeria

Abstract

Field experiments were conducted in 2014 under rainfed and irrigation cropping to evaluate/monitor the influence of fertilizer application and planting dates on the growth and yield of green pepper in Owo, South West Nigeria towards its production year round. Treatment evaluated consisted of two varieties of sweet pepper (California wonder and Tattasai dan-garko), three fertilizer types (organic, urea and organomineral) and four planting dates in each season (2-April; 12-April; 22-April and 2-May for early season and 22-Sept.; 01-Oct; 11-Oct and 23-Oct for the late season planting).These were factorially combined in a randomized complete block design (RCBD), and replicated three times. Compared to control, OMG, ORF and Urea fertilizers significantly (P < 0.05) increase both the growth and yield parameters. The growth and yield of the crop was favoured at the late planting date when the soil moisture was augmented with the supplementary irrigation and on the other hand, the rainfed cropping favours production of higher biomass, thus reducing the total harvested yield .The 02-May and 23-Oct planting dates and the application of OGM recorded the best growth and yield attributes. Among the varieties, California wonder exhibited adaptable superior characteristics in terms of number of fruits (59.59) fruit weight (6.68g) harvestable yield (2480.82kg/ha). The interaction effect showed that variety California wonder transplanted on 23-Oct recorded more improvement in the form of highest leaf area (8.79 cm2), maximum number of fruits/ plant, fruit weight (86.93 g) and fruit yield (854.69 g/plant and 23.08 t/ha). The results established that 23-Oct is ideal for bell pepper planting and the variety California wonder is the most stable performing variety with respect to the different planting dates