THE EFFECT OF FOLIAR FERTILIZING ON THE CHEMICAL COMPOSITION OF PEPPERS GROWN IN PROTECTED SPACES IN THE STRUMICA AREA IN THE REPUBLIC OF MACEDONIA

The influence of foliar fertilizing on the chemical composition of peppers grown inprotected spaces in the Strumica area was examined. The experiment was set infour variants and three repetitions. The variants used in the experiment were, asfollows: Control (untreated variant); NPK+Ever green (55% organic matter,2%w/w Mg, 2%w/w Fe, 2%w/w Zn, 2% w/w Mn, 0.5 %w/w Cu, 0.5 %w/w B);NPK+Biolinfa (34% organic matter, 3% N, 5.80 % K2O); NPK+Oligomix (1.20 %B, 0.10 % Cu, 4 % Fe, 1.50 % Mn, 0.10 % Mo, 2 % Zn). The experiment was set in18 rows, and each variant and repetition comprised 62 plants. During thevegetation period, 7 foliar treatments were made with listed fertilizers at aconcentration of 0.4%. Before setting up the experiment, an agrochemical analysisof the soil was performed enabling the researchers to determine good soil fertilitywith available nitrogen and potassium, and average fertility with availablephosphorus. Foliar fertilizing had a positive influence on the chemical compositionof the peppers. In the variants treated with different organic fertilizers theresearchers recorded a higher content of the analyzed parameters than in thecontrol, untreated variant. The highest average content of dry matter (14.80%), thehighest average content of ash (0.90%) and the highest average vitamin C content(120 mg/100g) were determined in the pepper in Variant 2. The highest averagecontent of nitrogen (1.37%), phosphorus (0.53%), potassium (2.25%) and calcium(1.42%) was also determined in the pepper in Variant 2. The highest averagemagnesium (0.38%), iron (0.0067%) and manganese (0.0017 %) content wasdetermined in the pepper in Variant 3