Plant Population Influences Growth and Yields of Bell Pepper

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Abstract
Bell peppers (Capsicum annuum L. cv. Early Calwonder) were plug-mix seeded at 13-, 25-, 38-, and 51-cm within-row spacings in two rows on raised beds and thinned to one, two, or three plants per hill upon emergence. The experiments were conducted on commercial pepper fields located in southern Florida during the Winter 1983 and Spring 1984 seasons. Populations ranged from 21,527 to 258,328 plants/ha. Plant growth characteristics were measured at anthesis and just before the final harvest in each experiment. Root and shoot weights, shoot : root ratios, and stem diameters generally decreased and plant heights generally increased in response to higher plant populations. The lower shoot : root ratios at higher plant populations indicated that plants were producing more root mass in proportion to shoot mass than plants at lower populations. Number of primary and secondary branches per plant in the two experiments averaged 2.7 and 5.3, respectively, and were generally not influenced by plant populations. Marketable fruit yields/ha increased linearly in response to higher plant populations. Marketable fruit number and weight per plant decreased with higher plant populations, whereas fruit size (g/fruit) was unaffected. This observation suggested that the higher marketable yields/ha at higher plant populations were attributed to more plants with a lower number of similarly sized fruits per plant. The 25-cm within-row spacing with two plants per hill resulted in 81,109 plants/ha, the optimum marketable pepper fruit yield.

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