Flowering and fruiting of Mirasol pepper (Capsicum annuum L.) with minimum tillage, conventional tillage or addition of oats to the soil

Abstract

The lack of knowledge of the responses of growth, development and yield of crops in minimum tillage operations or soil amendments may be the main obstacle to its acceptance in the production of Mirasol pepper. Therefore, a field experiment was conducted from 2008 to 2010 on the Experimental field Zacatecas, in order to measure the effect of minimum tillage and the addition of oats to the soil during f lowering, fruiting and yield of Mirasol pepper. The response of agronomic practices under study was compared with the effect of conventional tillage system. Mean values of agronomic practices were compared through an analysis of repeated measure, in which the effect of management systems was tested within and between years in growth curves of the number of buds, f lowers and fruits per plant. The phenological stages of beginning of f lowering, 50% f lowering, 50% green and red fruits and 50% red fruits were defined and explained by the accumulation of heat units, while the dry weight of fruit through the cycle was different between years. There was not a defined response in flowering, fruiting, and phenology of Mirasol peppers to the use of certain type of tillage or addition of oats to the soil. The dry weight of fruit was inversely related to the number of fruits per plant, i.e., the highest dry weight observed in 2009 and 2010 coincided with the lowest number of fruits quantified, happening the opposite in 2008.