Effect of N solution concentration, water rate and transient starvation on sweet paprika dry matter production and yield¹

Contribution No. 948‐E, 1983 Series, from the Institute of Soils and Water, Agricultural Research Organization, The Volcani Center, P.O.B. 6, Bet Dagan 50–250, Israel.

Abstract

Sweet paprika response to water and nitrogen has not been reported in the literature, even though the crop is widely used in the food dyes industry. The objective of the present work was to determine the effects of water rate (IR), N concentration in water (C_N), and transient starvation on total processable yield, yield quality and dry matter production and partitioning among fruits, leaves and stems. The experiment was carried out in 10‐liter pots filled with volcanic scoria and consisted of 4 × 3 IR × C_N treatments plus 3 starvation treatments. In all treatments, about 95% of the total dry matter found in the tops of the plants was located in the fruits. Plants that gave good yields (100–120 and 170–210 g/plant high quality and total processable pods yield, respectively) were characterized at harvest time by 4.2–4.8% N in leaves, 1.8–1.9% N in fruits, 2% N in stems and 1.0–1.3% N in roots, and their total N consumption was 4.5–5.2 g/plant. Diminishing N application rates had only a small effect on % N in plants but induced an appreciable reduction in dry matter production. In cases where equal rates of N were applied, the dry matter production and pod yields were greater when N was added through a combination of higher IR and lower C_N than the reverse N, even when water was not a limiting factor for plant growth. The high‐quality‐yield‐(QY)‐to‐total‐processable‐yield ratio decreased when IR was elevated from 600 to 1000 ml/plant/day. Transient starvation for 4 days reduced QY by about 50% and increased %N in the fruits, but did not affect fruiting uniformity. N and P absorption indicated no antagonism between the uptake of these elements in the present experiment.

Key words:

• Nitrogen distribution in plants
• %N
• %P
• processable yield
• quality yield
• total dry matter yield

Notes

Contribution No. 948‐E, 1983 Series, from the Institute of Soils and Water, Agricultural Research Organization, The Volcani Center, P.O.B. 6, Bet Dagan 50–250, Israel.