Effect of plant population, stem and flower pruning on hydroponically grown sweet pepper in a shadenet structure

A study was conducted in 2009/2010 and 2010/2011 to investigate the effect of plant population, flower and stem pruning of hydroponically grown peppers in a 40% (black and white) shadenet structure at the ARC-Roodeplaat VOPI. The research was done in an open bag hydroponic system with sawdust as growing medium. Pepper plants were subjected to three plant populations (2, 2.5 and 3 plant/m 2 ), three stem pruning treatments (2, 3 and 4 stems) and three flower pruning treatments (removal of first two or first four flowers or zero flower removal). Experimental layout was a randomized block design with two replicates. Sweet pepper fruits were harvested at a mature green stage. Data was collected on ten plants determining fruit number, fruit mass, unmarketable yield, marketable yield and total yield for all treatments. Stem pruning to four stems without removing any flowers at a plant population of 3 plants/m 2 resulted in the highest yield and quality. Pruning the first two or four fruits seemed to have no significant influence on yield. Results showed that sweet pepper yield and quality can be effectively manipulated by plant population and stem pruning, while flower pruning had insignificant (p<0.05) effect.