Author(s)

Guilherme De Freitas Furtado¹, Antonio Ramos Cavalcante¹, Lúcia Helena G. Chaves^1*, José Amilton Santos Júnior², Hans Raj Gheyi³

¹Department of Agricultural Engineering, Federal University of Campina Grande, Campina Grande, Brazil.
²Department of Agricultural Engineering, Federal Rural University of Pernambuco, Recife, Brazil.
³Postgraduate Program in Agricultural Engineering, Federal University of Recôncavo da Bahia, Cruz das Almas, Brazil.

The viability of the use of brackish water in the hydroponic cultivation of vegetables cannot dispense with auxiliary techniques such as water mixing and the use of plant densities. In this sense, the objective of the present work was to analyze the growth and production of sweet pepper, cv. All Big, under hydroponic conditions, under different levels of electrical conductivity of the nutrient solution (1.7, 3.7, 5.7, 7.7, 9.7 and 11.7 dS·m^-1) in plants spaced every 0.2 m and 0.3 m. These treatments were distributed in a completely randomized experimental design, analyzed in a 6 × 2 factorial scheme, with five replications. The growth variables were evaluated at 60, 75 and 90 days after sowing and the production variables at the time of harvest; however, the results were submitted to analysis of variance, at a 0.05 probability level. The interaction between the electrical conductivity of the nutrient solution and the density of plants influenced the behavior of the growth and production variables of pepper (All Big). It was verified that the pepper plants had better performance of the biometric variables plant height, stem diameter and number of leaves when cultivated every 30 cm. At the time, in the analysis by plant, the production of pepper fruits was more expressive when spacing of 30 cm was adopted, however, in the tube of six meters, when 20 cm of spacing was used, the number of fruits was on average, 26.38% and 16.40% higher than lower density, in the electrical conductivities 1.7 and 11.7 dS·m^-1.

Capsicum annuum L., Brackish Water, Rainwater

De Freitas Furtado, G. , Cavalcante, A. , Chaves, L. , Santos Júnior, J. and Gheyi, H. (2017) Growth and Production of Hydroponic Pepper under Salt Stress and Plant Density. American Journal of Plant Sciences, 8, 2255-2267. doi: 10.4236/ajps.2017.89151.