ISHS Acta Horticulturae 807: International Symposium on Strategies Towards Sustainability of Protected Cultivation in Mild Winter Climate
BELL PEPPER (CAPSICUM ANNUUM L.) PRODUCTION IN LOW COST NATURALLY-VENTILATED POLYHOUSES DURING WINTERS IN THE MID HILLS OF INDIA |
| Authors: | M. Kumar, V. Verma |
| Keywords: | protected cultivation, low cost naturally-ventilated polyhouses, capsicum productivity, agro-techniques, green house environment |
| Abstract:
Capsicum (Bell pepper) is an important crop in mid hills of India. But mostly its production is restricted to only summer and rainy seasons. To ensure its regular and off-season supply, technology for growing of capsicum under protected conditions needs to be standardized. Low cost naturally-ventilated polyhouses offer a great scope to raise the off-season crop of capsicum for round the year supply in the mild winter climatic areas of India. Keeping this in view, an experiment was conducted during September, 2004-March, 2005 for developing a complete package of growing media, irrigation regime, fertigation with water soluble fertilizers and use of plastic mulch for green house capsicum production at Dr. Y. S. Parmar University of Horticulture and Forestry, Nauni, Solan, Himachal Pradesh, India. All the agro-techniques were arranged in seven (7) modules and the experiment was planted in a randomized block design with three replications. The results revealed that the module M1 comprising of growing media having Soil: Farm Yard Manure (FYM): Sand (2:1:1), irrigation regime of 20 kPa, fertigation with water soluble fertilizers at the rate of 250 kg/ha NPK and use of black polythene mulch recorded highest plant height (102.60 cm), more number of flowers per plant (31.73), more number of fruit per plant (18.03), more fruit set (60.04%) and higher productivity (1.08 kg/plant and 8.64 kg/m2). Similarly, module M5 differing only for irrigation regime (40 kPa) with M1 recorded higher ascorbic acid content (100.20 mg/100g of produce), pericarp thickness (5.50 mm) and longer harvest duration (108.60), but was statistically at par with M1. From the present studies it can be concluded that Module M1 having growing media as Soil: FYM: Sand (2:1:1), irrigation regime of 20 kPa, fertigation with water soluble fertilizers at the rate of 250 kg/ha NPK and use of black polythene mulch is most suitable for off-season production of capsicum (Bell pepper) under protected conditions in the mid hills of India. | |
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