TITLE:
Growth and Production of Hydroponic Pepper under Salt Stress and Plant Density
AUTHORS:
Guilherme De Freitas Furtado, Antonio Ramos Cavalcante, Lúcia Helena G. Chaves, José Amilton Santos Júnior, Hans Raj Gheyi
KEYWORDS:
Capsicum annuum L., Brackish Water, Rainwater
JOURNAL NAME:
American Journal of Plant Sciences,
Vol.8 No.9,
August
21,
2017
ABSTRACT: The
viability of the use of brackish water in the hydroponic cultivation of vegetables
cannot dispense with auxiliary techniques such as water mixing and the use of
plant densities. In this
sense, the objective of the present work was to analyze the growth and
production of sweet pepper, cv. All Big, under hydroponic conditions, under
different levels of electrical conductivity of the nutrient solution (1.7, 3.7, 5.7, 7.7, 9.7 and 11.7 dS·m-1) in plants spaced every 0.2 m and 0.3 m. These treatments were
distributed in a completely randomized experimental design, analyzed in a 6 × 2
factorial scheme, with five replications. The growth variables were evaluated at 60, 75 and 90 days after sowing
and the production variables at the time of harvest; however, the results were
submitted to analysis of variance, at a 0.05 probability level. The interaction between the electrical
conductivity of the nutrient solution and the density of plants influenced the
behavior of the growth and production variables of pepper (All Big). It was verified that the pepper
plants had better performance of the biometric variables plant height, stem
diameter and number of leaves when cultivated every 30 cm. At the time, in the
analysis by plant, the production of pepper fruits was more
expressive when spacing of 30 cm was adopted,
however, in the tube of six meters, when 20 cm of spacing was used, the number
of fruits was on average, 26.38% and 16.40% higher than lower density, in the electrical conductivities
1.7 and 11.7 dS·m-1.