Journal Of Applied Horticulture ISSN: 0972-1045



WWW
horticultureresearch

Muhtaseb Jalal

The National centre for Agricultural Research and Extension, PO Box-93. Postal code: 11623, Jordan..

Key words: Tuff, sand, soil, sweet pepper, soilless, fruit quality, yield

Journal of Applied Horticulture, 2010, volume 12, issue 2, pages 158-160.

Abstract: This study was conducted at Jordan Valley to evaluate the use of locally available tuff and sand substrates in comparison with soil for growing sweet pepper (Capsicum annum L. cv. Reehan) using an open soilless culture. Treatments were randomly distributed according to RCBD with three replications. Sweet pepper plants, grown in soil or tuff gave higher total yield (6.0, 5.5 and 8.7, 6.5 ton/1000m2, respectively) and yield/plant (2.0, 1.58 and 1.3, 1.38 kg/plant, respectively) in both the years, while those grown in sand produced the least. Fruit weight of plants grown in soil was the highest in the first season (200.6 g) followed by tuff and lastly the sand (177.0 and 169.4 g, respectively), however, it was not affected by the substrates in the second season. Substrates had little effect on fruit length in both seasons and fruit diameter in the first season, but, in the second season those grown in soil gave the highest diameter (74.4 mm) followed by those in tuff and sand (70.6 and 70.3 mm, respectively). This study indicated that open soilless system using tuff as a substrate may be suitable for sweet pepper production without dramatic changes in yield or fruit quality and it saved about 65-70% of water applied by conventional farmers for sweet pepper production under plastic house.



Journal of Applied Horticulture