Abstract
Drought stress is one of the most adverse limitations of local black pepper production in Dry and Intermediate zones of Sri Lanka. Application of Super Absorbent Polymers (SAPs) is hypothesized to result in the optimised use of water resources in these regions. A study was undertaken to examine the effect of different levels of irrigation intervals and different level of SAPs and then to find out the best treatment combination for growth of black pepper plants under nursery management. The experiment was conducted at Intercropping and Betel Research Station, Narammala. GK49 was the selected variety and Zeba (commercial name) was the selected SAP type. The experiment was carried out following a factorial layout based on Complete Random Design (CRD) with three replicates. The factors were three levels of irrigation intervals as 4, 8 and 10 days (T1 to T3) and four levels of SAPs as no Zeba, 1g, 1.5g and 2g of Zeba (L1 to L4). Plant growth parameters were measured at two weeks interval and all the parameters were analysed by anova using SAS software. Statistical analysis had shown that there were significant effects (P<0.05) of main factors and their interactions on plant parameters. Plant parameters were decreased with decreased Zeba amount and increased irrigation interval. In this study 2g of Zeba with 4 and 8 days irrigation interval (L4T1, L4T2) and 1.5g of Zeba with 4 days of irrigation interval (L3T1) treatments were the better treatments. However, considering the cost effectiveness 2g of Zeba with 8 days irrigation interval (L4T2) treatment is recommended as the best treatment for increasing plant performances and decreasing water stress conditions to the plant. Therefore, the results of this study showed that SAPs can store and absorb a considerable amount of water and reduce unfavourable effects of water shortage on black pepper plants in nursery management.
Highlights
IntroductionBlack pepper (Piper nigrum L.) is a member of the Piperaceae family
Background and justificationBlack pepper (Piper nigrum L.) is a member of the Piperaceae family
Export volume of Black pepper in Sri Lanka has increased from 7930 MT in 2014 to 16,656 MT in 2015 and export earnings have increased by 116% over previous years from Rs.Mn 9,029 to Rs.Mn, 19,543 in 2015 (DEA, 2015)
Summary
Black pepper (Piper nigrum L.) is a member of the Piperaceae family. Pepper is a perennial evergreen climbing vine, cultivated for its fruit, which is usually dried and used as a spice and seasoning. Black pepper is considered as the ’King of Spices‘ due to its high demand in the global context and referred as ’Black gold‘ due to its higher prized trade. Black pepper is economically the most important and the most widely used spice crop of the world (Ravindran, 2000). Black pepper oil distilled from the fruits was used in perfumery. Export volume of Black pepper in Sri Lanka has increased from 7930 MT in 2014 to 16,656 MT in 2015 and export earnings have increased by 116% over previous years from Rs.Mn 9,029 to Rs.Mn, 19,543 in 2015 (DEA, 2015). Black pepper is imported usually for value addition purposes when local raw materials is inadequate and the low import of pepper in 2015 indicate that the value-addition companies have largely used local black pepper for their industries (DEA, 2015)
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