Growth and Yield of Sweet Pepper as Influence by Different Growth Media

Loss of organic matter and related loss of soil microbial diversity and activity, as a result of intensive agriculture has contributed to an increase in soil borne plant diseases. Sweet pepper is highly susceptible to many soil borne diseases such as damping-off, root rots and wilts. In view of this, the study was conducted to assess the influence of different growth media on sweet pepper in terms of growth, yield and incidence of diseases. Materials used include: Seeds of two varieties of sweet pepper (Yolo wonder and California Wonder), rice husk, coconut hull, sawdust, groundnut hull, sugarcane bagasse, top soil and well cured cow dung. The Soilless media were prepared by mixing it with cow dung in a ratio of 20:1, whilst the cow dung was applied to the top soil at a rate of 100 kg N/ha. The experiment was a two by six (2˟6) factorial experiment with twelve (12) treatments replicated three (3) times resulting in a total of thirty six (36) treatments laid out in Complete Randomised Design (CRD). Parameters measured include; plant height, number of leaves per plants, number of fruits per plant, fruit length, fruit diameter and incidence of root rot and wilt diseases. The results on plant heights at various weeks after transplanting showed that, all the soilless media generally, produced plants with significantly higher height at (p ˂ 0.05) than the top soil. The results also showed that, the soilless media had superior number of leaves and fruits produced per plant, fruit length and diameter to that of the top soil. There were no incidence of root rot and wilt diseases in the soilless media but the top soil had two incidence of wilt disease. The results reveals that, cultivation of sweet pepper in soilless medium can give you better growth and yield and can also reduce the occurrence of soil borne diseases like root rot and wilt in sweet pepper. Therefore, cultivation of sweet pepper in soilless medium should be encourage to reduce the occurrence of soil borne diseases in other to enhance growth and yield in sweet pepper