ABSTRACT
A field experiment was conducted from March to July, 2021 during the rainy season at the teaching and research farm of the faculty of Agriculture, University of Benin, Benin City to study the effect of row spacing and fertilizer application on the growth and yield of pepper (Capsicum annum).
The experiment was a 3 x 4 factorial experiment laid out in a complete block design (RCBD) in three replications. The treatments were a combination of three different levels of spacing (S1=30cm x 50cm, S2=40cm x 50cm and S3 =50cm x 50cm) and four different levels of fertilizer application (F0 = control, F1 = 20 t ha-1 poultry manure, F2 = 200 kg ha-1 NPK 15:15:15 and F3 = 100 kg ha-1 NPK 15:15:15 + 10 t ha-1. The parameters measured were plant height, stem diameter, leaf area, number of leaves, number of branches, fresh fruit weight per plant, fresh fruit weight per plot, fruit diameter, fruit length, number of flowers per plant, number of fruits per plant and fruit yield.
The results obtained showed that growth and yield of pepper was influenced by the application of different treatments. The treatment S3F1 (50cm x 50cm spacing + 20 t ha-1 poultry manure) had the highest plant height and largest stem diameter. It was observed that the treatment S2F2 (40cm x 50cm spacing + 200 kg ha-1 NPK 15:15:15) had the highest fruit yield. The lowest yield was obtained from S2F0 (40cm x 50cm spacing + control). There was significant difference in terms of yield. The study suggests that the treatment S2F2 should be used to obtain maximum yield.
