PRODUCTION OF SWEET PEPPER UNDER PROTECTIVE STRUCTURE IN SYLHET

Abstract

Two experiments were conducted during dry season, from October 2013 to April 2014, at the experimental field of Horticulture Department, Sylhet Agricultural University, Sylhet to evaluate the sweet pepper genotypes under net protections and to find out the suitable protective structures with cost effective net system. First study was undertaken to evaluate three sweet pepper genotypes with net (fine net, 120 mesh and coarse net, 40 mesh) and without net protection. Net protection had remarkable and significant influence on plant growth and yield of sweet pepper. The plants grown with net protection had higher plant height compared to that of plants grown in open field. Plant growth behavior at different days after transplanting (DAT) was also observed. The genotype BARI Mistimorich-1 produced the highest fruit weight (221.0 g) while the genotype Yolo wonder had the lowest fruit weight (11.0 g). Net protection systems had significant influence on growth and yield of sweet pepper. The first flowering was earlier for the plant grown from fine net system (61.33 days) compared to coarse net system (66.88 days). The plants in coarse net system produced the second highest yield 217.5 g in fine net system. The highest fruit yield was harvested from the genotype California wonder (21.31 t/ha) when grown from coarse net system which was followed by the BARI Mistimorich-1 from fine net system (20.38 t/ha). When the genotype BARI Mistimorich-1 was grown in fine net system it produced the highest yield (35.71 t/ha) followed by California wonder coupled with coarse net system (28.8 t/ha) and it was the lowest for BARI Mistimorich-1 grown in open field (4.86 t/ha). Fine net system had the highest benefit cost ratio (9.04). Second study was undertaken to find out the most cost effective net system under polytunnel, polytuunel with net, only net and open field. The highest fruit yield was found in plants grown in only net protection (25.00 t/ha) and the lowest in plants grown in open field system (8.83 t/ha). Among the different net protection systems only net system had the highest BCR (6.5) than other systems and the lowest in polytunnel system (1.2). Of the three varieties tested, BARI Mistimorich-1 and California Wonder performed relatively better on the average in both fine and coarse net protection than Yolo Wonder. However, performance of all varieties tended to be lower in without net condition.