Effects of Nitrogen Fertilizer and Mulch Application on Growth Performance and Pod Yields of Hot Pepper (Capsicum annuum L.) under Irrigated Condition

Hot pepper is an important vegetable and spice crop in Ethiopia. However, the productivity of hot pepper is limited by poor soil fertility and lack of proper soil and water conservation measures under irrigated condition. Therefore, hot pepper crop response to nitrogen (N) fertilizer and mulching experiment was conducted at Alage ATVET College. The treatments consisted of three mulch types (no mulch, transparent plastic mulch, and dry banana leaves mulch) and four levels of N (0, 50, 100 and 150 kg N ha-1) factorial arranged in a randomized complete block design with four replications. A hot pepper cultivar commonly known as “MarekoFana” was used for the study. Days to 50% flowering, 50% fruit set, maturity and harvest were significantly prolonged in response to increasing N application. The delays were about 7, 19, 23 and 12 days at the N levels of 50, 100 and 150 kg N ha-1respectively compared to the control. The analysis of variance revealed that plant height, number of branches per plant, number of pods per plant, dry weight of seeds per pod, total weight of dried pods per plant, weight of individual dry pods and width were significantly (P = .001) increased by the main effect of mulching. Generally, the results revealed that nitrogen application significantly (P = .001) influenced all growth parameters, pod yield, and yield components of the crop. Nitrogen application at 100 kg ha-1 resulted in the highest total dried pod yield (4.5 tha-1), marketable yield (3.76 t ha- 1), pod length (13.3 cm), pod width (3.2 cm), mean dry weight of pod (3.85 g), and seed number per pod (108.4). The interaction of N and mulching also significantly (P = .05) affected marketable and total pod yields. In conclusion, based on agronomic performance and partial budget analyses results we recommend a combined application of dry banana leaves mulch and 100 kg N ha-1 for economically feasible and sustainable hot pepper production in Alage areas of Central Rift Valley of Ethiopia.