Cultivation of chili pepper in pots in a protected environment with different nitrogen sources

Abstract

Nitrogen fertilization is important for plant development. Chili pepper is an important condiment vegetable, however there are few studies about the nutritional management of plants of this species grown in pots. The objective of this work was to evaluate the effect of nitrogen fertilization on chili pepper plants grown in pots in a protected environment. The treatments were: Control (without fertilization), controlled release fertilizer (14-14-14); Ammonium Sulfate and Urea. The analyzed variables were plant height, leaf area, average fruit weight, total fruit weight per plant, number of fruits per plant, and fruit length. The results obtained were submitted to analysis of variance and comparison of means (p<0.05). There are differences between the evaluated N sources. The controlled release fertilizer provided greater growth in the vegetative phase, however, this was not enough to guarantee greater fruit Productions. The tested fertilizers did not influence the length of fruits, however, there was a greater number of fruits per plant with the use of ammonium sulfate and urea. The average fruit weight was not increased with any of the fertilizers tested, however, the total weight was higher in all N sources tested compared to the control.