Effect Of Sowing Time And Plant Spacing On The Yield And Yield Attributes Of Sweet Pepper (Capsicum Annuum)

An experiment was carried out at the Olericulture field of Horticulture Research Centre of BARJ, Joydebpur, Gazipur during September 2006 to April 2007 to investigate yield and yield attributes of sweet pepper as influenced by plant spacing and sowing time. There were altogether 21 treatments comprising seven sowing dates viz. 1 September, 15 September, 1 October, 15 October, 30 October, 15 November, 30 November and three spacings viz. 50 × 50 cm, 50x40 cm, and 50 × 30 cm. The experiment was laid out in a Randomized Complete Block Design (factorial) with three replications. The results of the experiment showed that majority of the yield and yield components significantly varied with variation of spacing and sowing time. Only number of fruits per plant and fruit yield per plant resulted significantly higher which reflected higher yield for 1 October sowing. The number of branches per plant, number of fruits per plant, fruit length, individual fruit weight, yield per plant were found significantly increased with the increasing plant spacings but other parameters were found to be significantly increased with the decreasing plant spacing. The combined effect of sowing date and plant spacing also had significant effect on different growth and yield parameters and yield. The highest yield (19.36 t/ha) of fruit was recorded from the earlier sowing (1 October) with the closest spacing (50 × 30 cm). But reasonable yield could be obtained up to 30 October with same spacing. Keywords: Sowing time and plant spacing; yield and yield attributes; sweet pepper. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3329/bjar.v36i2.9254 BJAR 2011; 36(2): 271-278