Estimation of the Foliar Area by Non-Destructive Methods in Two Stages of Growth of Pepper Plants (<i>Capsicum annuum</i> L.) Hybrid Salvador

Abstract

The present work was aimed to obtain a model for the determination of the leaf area in function of the length and width of the leaves in pepper ( Capsicum annuum L.) hybrid Salvador. The research was carried out in nursery conditions at the Experimental Campus La Teodomira, located in the parish of Lodana, Santa Ana, province of Manabí, Ecuador, in 2016, in the stages of initiation of flowering and flowering-fructification. In each phase 100 physiologically mature leaves of different sizes were collected. Leaves were digitalized in a rectangle with known dimensions, which allowed the area to be calculated through the percentage of pixels of different colors. From the determination of the length and maximum width of each leaf and the estimated area through the digitization process, the regression models were obtained, selecting the better fit generated between the leaf area and the product of the length by the maximum width of the leaf ( ). In the initiation of flowering stage the quadratic model generated the best coefficient of determination (R 2 = 0.958), whereas in the flowering-fructification stage the best coefficient of determination was achieved by the cubic model (R 2 = 0.955). The practical applicability of other simpler models among the tested ones, which show a high accuracy and sacrifice a low percentage of error, is discussed.