Abstract
Peppers are used worldwide as spices, condiments and vegetables. Media incorporation of municipal solid waste compost (MSWC) and rice hulls usually results in a positive effect on the growth of a wide variety of crops. This study was carried out to measure the growth of pepper (Capsicum annuum L.) seedlings in five different levels of media mixtures (peat moss, rice hulls and MSWC). The measured traits were live plant percentage, number of leaf, plant height, shoot diameter, root length, shoot dry matter, root dry matter, plant ash, shoot fresh weight, root fresh weight, shoot dry weight and root dry weight. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) showed that different media mixture affected growth traits of pepper (except for essential oil yield and Shoot diameter). With decreasing of peat moss levels (100 to 60 v/v) the essential oil yields decreased. Results showed that increasing municipal solid waste compost increased almost growth of all traits. In the most of traits, the best result was observed with treatment 5 (peat moss 60 units, rice hulls 35 units and municipal solid waste compost 50 units v/v). Our study showed that increasing MSWC plus rice hulls in medium composition increased most plant traits growth and were benefit for growing pepper seedlings.