The Effect of Spraying Seaweed Extract and Amino Acids on Some Floral and Fruit Characters of Two Species of Sweet Pepper (Capsicum annuum L.) Under Plastic Houses Conditions

Abstract

The current experiment has been conducted at a plastic house belongs to the College of Agriculture / university of Al-Qadisiya during the growing season 2012-2013 to study the effect of spraying seaweed extract at 0, 3, and 6 ml.L-1 and amino acids at 0, 400, and 800 mg. L-1 and their combination on some floral and fruits characters of two cultivars of sweet pepper Capsicum annuum L. cv. Flavio F1 and California wonder. Results show that there is a significant increase in flowers number per plant (51.14 and 33.99) and fruit set (70.99 and 60.30) for Flavio F1 and California wonder, respectively, due to the use of sea weed extract at 6 ml. L-1. Using amino acids at 800 mg. L-1 have the same effect. Also, fruit number, weight and volume, vitamin C content, total soluble solids and total sugars are significantly increased at the highest concentrations of sea weed extract (23.26, 119.70 gm, 438.94 cm3, 49.47 mg/100 ml fresh weight, 9.03% and 5.27, respectively for Flavio F1 cultivar and 16.41, 76.31 gm, 146.93 cm3, 31.03 mg/100 ml fresh weight, 5.84% and 4.50, respectively for California wonder cultivar). Same results show the highest concentration of the amino acids. As for the interactions, the combination of seaweed extract at 6 ml. L-1 and amino acids at 800 mg. L-1 give the highest values for all the parameters measured in comparison with the control treatment.