EFFECTS OF SALINITY ON GROWTH, YIELD AND NUTRIENTS CONTENT OF CAPSICUM (Capsicum annuum L.)

Abstract

A pot experiment was conducted to study the effects of salinity on growth, yield and nutrients content of capsicum during the period of November 2021 to March 2022 at the net house and laboratory of Agro Environmental Chemistry, Department of Agricultural Chemistry, Sher-e-Bangla Agricultural University, Sher-e-Bangla Nagar, Dhaka-1207. Two capsicum varieties viz. V 1 (ASTHA F1) and V 2 (BARI capsicum-1) were taken to study the effects of salinity on growth, yield and nutrients content at five levels of salinity viz. S 0 (0 dS/m), S 1 (3 dS/m), S 2 (6 dS/m), S 3 (9 dS/m) and S 4 (12 dS/m). The experiment was laid out in Completely Randomized Design (CRD) with three replications between two varieties, V 1 (ASTHA F1) showed better result on growth parameters, yield contributing characters, and yield. The higher fruit yield plant -1 was recorded from V 1 (ASTHA F1) as compared to V 2 (BARI capsicum-1). Different salinity levels showed significant effects on growth and yield parameters of capsicum. Salinity levels did not show positive effects on growth and yield of capsicum. Growth parameters and yield of capsicum decreased with the increase of salinity levels. The control treatment S 0 (0 dS/m) gave the highest capsicum yield (g plant ) followed by S 1 (3 dS/m); whereas S 4 (12 dS/m) produced lowest yield. The variety Astha F 1 was found superior to BARI Capsicum-1 in respect to growth and yield of capsicum and highest number of fruits (7.60) single fruit weight (79.87 g) and yield plant -1 (607.01 g) were achieved with Astha F1 variety of capsicum when no salinity was used. All the parameters studied reduced with increase in levels of salinity. Nutrients content studied were also affected due to increase in salinity except Na.