Influence of differential irrigation and fertigation levels on yield of bell pepper (Capsicum annuum L. var. grossum) Kumar Rakesh1,*, Biwalkar Nilesh2, Singh Gurdarshan1, Sharda Rakesh2 1Krishi Vigyan Kendra, Faridkot-151203, Punjab 2Department of Soil and Water Engineering, Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana-141004, Punjab *Corresponding author: rksingh9874@gmail.com
Online published on 16 September, 2020. Abstract Experiments were conducted to evaluate the performance of coloured bell pepper (Capsicum annuum L. var. grossum) under naturally ventilated greenhouse during 2015–16 and 2016–17 at the farm of Krishi Vigyan Kendra, Faridkot, Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana to determine the influence of fertigation levels (F1, F2 and F3) and irrigation levels (I1, I2 and I3) on crop yield, water use efficiency (WUE), fertilizer use efficiency (FUE) and quality parameters i.e. fruit width, fruit girth, pericarp thickness, shelf life and ascorbic acid content. Orobelle (yellow colour) and Bomby (red colour) varieties of bell pepper were grown for study. The study revealed that the different levels of fertigation and irrigation had significant effect on plant growth parameters, crop yield, WUE and FUE in both of the varieties at 5 per cent level of significance. Treatment combination I1, F1 exhibited superiority over all other treatment combinations. During the year 2015–16 and 2016–17, the significantly highest yields were recorded for Orobelle i.e. 102.4 and 108.8 tonnes ha−1, respectively. Leaf area index values during both years were also observed maximum for the same variety and recorded 2.5 and 2.6, respectively. Highest water use efficiency of 8.4 and 8.1 q ha−1cm−1 was recorded under I3 during 2015–16 and 2016–17, respectively. The maximum fertilizer use efficiency was observed under F1 level as 6.6 and 7.0 for both the experimental years, respectively. Quality parameters i.e. fruit width, fruit girth, pericarp thickness, shelf life were found non-significant at 5 per cent level of significance but irrigation and fertigation levels had significant effect on ascorbic acid content. The minimum values of all parameters were recorded in F3I3 treatment. Top Keywords Fertigation, Fertilizer use efficiency, Irrigation, Naturally ventilated greenhouse, Water use efficiency. Top |