Growth and Production of Hydroponic Pepper under Salt Stress and Plant Density

Abstract

The viability of the use of brackish water in the hydroponic cultivation of vegetables cannot dispense with auxiliary techniques such as water mixing and the use of plant densities. In this sense, the objective of the present work was to analyze the growth and production of sweet pepper, cv. All Big, under hydroponic conditions, under different levels of electrical conductivity of the nutrient solution (1.7, 3.7, 5.7, 7.7, 9.7 and 11.7 dS &middot m - 1 ) in plants spaced every 0.2 m and 0.3 m. These treatments were distributed in a completely randomized experimental design, analyzed in a 6 × 2 factorial scheme, with five replications. The growth variables were evaluated at 60, 75 and 90 days after sowing and the production variables at the time of harvest; however, the results were submitted to analysis of variance, at a 0.05 probability level. The interaction between the electrical conductivity of the nutrient solution and the density of plants influenced the behavior of the growth and production variables of pepper (All Big). It was verified that the pepper plants had better performance of the biometric variables plant height, stem diameter and number of leaves when cultivated every 30 cm. At the time, in the analysis by pl ant, the production of pepper fruits was more expressive when spacing of 30 cm was adopted, however, in the tube of six meters, when 20 cm of spacing was used, the number of fruits was on average, 26.38 % and 16.40% higher than lower density, in the electrical conductivities 1.7 and 11.7 dS &middot m - 1 .