Impact of training methods and biostimulant applications on sweet pepper (Capsicum annuum) yield and nutritional values: under greenhouse condition

Abstract

Pepper is an important agricultural crop because of the nutritional value of the fruit and its economic importance. Various techniques have been practiced to enhance both the productivity and nutritional value of pepper. Therefore, this study was conducted to determine the impact of different training methods and biostimulants applications on the growth, yield, and chemical composition of sweet pepper (Capsicum annuum L.) plants under greenhouse conditions. For the training method, unpruned plants were compared with one stem and two stem plants, and for biostimulant applications, control plants were compared with the Disper Root (DR) and Disper Vital (DV). Unpruned plants had the fruit number (33.98), fruit weight (2.18 kg . plant-1), total marketable yield (109 ton . ha-1), and TSS (7.21 %) when considering plants that have either one or two stems for comparison. However, two stem plants had the highest fruit setting (62.41 %), carotenoid (1.37 mg . 100g-1 FW), fruit chlorophyll (35.68 mg . 100g-1 FW), and vitamin C (136.56 mg . 100g-1 FW), the contents were compared to other treatments. DR application resulted to increase in total sugar, carotenoid, vitamin C, and TSS contents significantly compared to both the control and DV application. While, DV application increased fruit setting, plant fruit number, plant fruit weight, and total marketable yield. In addition, integrating one stem plant with the DR application improved fiber, vitamin C, and TSS contents significantly, and two stem plants and the DV application improved fruit setting and carotenoid content. Thus, training methods integrated with biostimulant applications could be considered for developing agricultural practices to obtain commercial yield and improve the chemical composition of sweet pepper, as unpruned plants without biostimulant applications gave a negative impact.