Effect of seedling age at transplants on growth, yield and seed production of sweet pepper in Bangladesh

Abstract

Recently, sweet pepper (Capsicum spp.) has been a commercially important crop in Bangladesh. The cultivation procedure is highly sensitive to different environments. In the case of quality production, appropriate seedling age is a prerequisite for higher yield. The experiment was carried out at the Regional Horticulture Research Station, Bangladesh Agricultural Research Institute, Shibpur, Narsingdi, Bangladesh during the Rabi season of 2017-2018. Six treatments were used i.e.,. 14 days, 21 days, 28 days, 35 days, 42 days and 48 days at the age of transplanting seedlings. The experiment was conducted in a randomized complete block design with three replications. The number of seeds per fruit and thousand seeds weights resulted better at 21 days, 28 days and 35 days the age of transplanting seedlings. Considering marketable fruit number (13.55), yield per plant (1.69 kg) and yield (26.80 t ha-1) was found at 28 days’ age of transplant seedling, which was followed by 35 days’ age of transplant seedling. The lowest yield per plant (0.49 kg) and yield (7.76 t ha-1) were recorded at 48 days age of transplant seedling, respectively. From the result of this experiment, it may be recommended that 28 days’ age of seedling at transplant growth, yield and seed production showed better performance than other ages of seedlings at transplants of BARI Mistimorich-1.