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Title: TILLAGE AND MULCH EFFECTS ON YIELD AND FRUIT FRESH MASS OF BELL PEPPER (CAPSICUM ANNUM L.)

Author
item Abdul Baki, Aref
item MORSE, RONALD - VA POLYTECHNIC INSTITUTE
item Teasdale, John

Submitted to: Journal of Vegetable Crop Production
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 9/1/1997
Publication Date: N/A
Citation: N/A

Interpretive Summary: An environmentally friendly, sustainable method was developed for bell pepper production using mulch from the legume hairy vetch. Yield and fruit weight were similar to those produced under black polyethylene mulch or bare soil. The advantages of growing in hairy vetch mulch over black polyethylene include eliminating the non-degradable plastic and saving approximately $600/acre on production cost. The advantage over bare soil is better weed control and less labor and herbicide cost. The hairy vetch mulch system provides nitrogen (fixed by the legume cover crop), adds organic matter to the soil, improves soil water holding capacity and eliminates soil erosion. Users of this research are vegetable and fruit growers, soil conservationists, extension specialists, research scientists, and home gardeners.

Technical Abstract: Three tillage/mulch pepper production systems were evaluated in Beltsville, MD, and Blacksburg, VA. The tillage/mulch treatments were hairy vetch mulch, no tillage (HVNT), black polyethylene tilled (BPT), and bare soil, no tillage (BSNT).  Camelot' bell peppers were planted on raised beds in double rows. Treatments BPT and BSNT received N at 224 kg.ha-1 in six applications in MD while 78 kg.ha-1 was applied in two early applications. Vetch biomass in the HVNT treatment was estimated at 9.7 t.ha-1 in MD and 5.4 t.ha-1 in VA with a N content of 320 and 194 kg.ha-1, respectively. At each site, fruit maturity was earliest in the BPT and latest in the HVNT treatment; average fruit fresh mass was similar in all three treatments, and was highest early in the harvest season and declined with later harvests. There were no significant differences in marketable yield or fruit fresh mass among the three treatments in MD. Pepper yield was significantly higher with BPT than with HVNT or BSNT in VA. Higher soil temperature under BPT and increased N leaching in the BSNT and HVNT treatments possibly accounted for higher yield in BPT in VA and earliness with BPT at both sites.