Assessment of the Performance of Drip-Irrigated Green Pepper (Capsicum annum L.) under Poly-House and Open-Field Conditions

Sweet pepper (Capsicum annum L.) is one of an important group of vegetables grown extensively, widely cultivated and used as foods in almost every country of the world. It is a high productivity crop, it has high remunerative and nutritive values. Sweet pepper consumption in Nigeria is growing recently because of increasing demand by rural and urban consumers as a result of rapid population growth and water scarcity calls for an alternative means of production system for sustenance of the human race. The experiment was carried out during the dry seasons of 2020.2021 and 2021/2022 at the Teaching and Research Field of Federal Polytechnic, Ado-Ekiti, Nigeria. The beds were prepared, nursery was raised, drip irrigation system was installed and fumigation was carried out before transplanting. The experimental design was a randomized complete block (RCBD) with nine replications in each environment. The same design was applied to both poly-house and open-field conditions. The factors are environment (poly-house and open-field) and irrigation intervals of 5, 6 and 7 days (I5, I6 and I7). Data obtained were subjected to analysis of variance and Tukey’s Honestly Significant Difference (HSD) was used for multiple comparison. Drip irrigation was applied to all plots at different irrigation intervals. Number of leaves (NL), plant height (PH), stem girth (SG) and weight of fresh fruit (WFF) were recorded. The respective results of performance of green pepper at different irrigation treatments under poly-house and open-field in the 2020/2021 and 2021/2022 growing seasons were: NL-I5: 180, I6: 185, I7: 171 and I5: 120, I6: 139, I7: 122 in 2020/2021 growing season while I5: 157, I6: 173, I7: 160 and I5: 108.3, I6: 118.3, I7: 118 during 2021/2022 growing season. PH-I5: 128.7, I6: 139.3, I7: 125.3 and I5: 108.3, I6: 118.3, I7: 104.7 cm in 2020/2021 growing season while I5: 117.7, I6: 129.7, I7: 120 and I5: 102, I6: 115, I7: 99.3 cm during 2021/2022 growing season. SG-I5: 30, I6: 29.7, I7: 29.6 and I5: 25.1, I6: 26, I7: 25 mm in 2020/2021 growing season while I5: 20.3, I6: 23.3, I7: 21.3 and I5: 18.5, I6: 20, I7: 17.9 mm during 2021/2022 growing season. WFF-I5: 20.3, I6: 29.2, I7: 19.8 and I5: 13.3.1, I6: 21, I7: 14.2 kg/m2 in 2020/2021 growing season while I5: 14.6, I6: 23.5, I7: 14.7 and I5: 9.5, I6: 17.8, I7: 8.8 kg/m2 during 2021/2022 growing season.

The controlled conditions provided by the poly-house resulted in best overall performance compared to the open field environment. It is recommended that the assessment of long-term sustainability and economic viability of poly-house cultivation for green pepper production be conducted.