Effects of different growing media on vegetative and reproductive growth of bell pepper

ABSTRACT

A soilless pot experiment was conducted to investigate the effects of different growing substrates on vegetative and reproductive growth of bell pepper. The growing substrates consisted of: rice hull (100%), perlite (100%), coarse saw dust (100%), rice hull (75%)+zeolite (25%), perlite (75%)+zeolite (25%), saw dust (75%)+zeolite (25%), rice hull (50%)+perlite (50%), saw dust (50%)+perlite (50%), and rice hull (50%)+saw dust (50%) (by volume). Results showed that for all measured vegetative traits the highest and lowest amount was related to the plants grown in the perlite+zeolite and pure rice hull or saw dust, respectively. Results also showed that using perlite+zeolite as the media produced the highest fruit number and yield, while plant grown in the saw dust+zeolite produced the lowest fruit number. According to the results, adding zeolite and perlite to rice hull or saw dust in most cases, significantly increased the pepper yield compared with their pure treatments.

KEYWORDS:

• bell pepper
• perlite
• rice hull
• saw dust
• zeolite

Acknowledgments

The authors are grateful to the Afrand Tusca Co., Tehran, Iran for kindly providing the zeolite.

Funding

This research was supported by the Isfahan University of Technology Research Council.