Physiological and agronomic response of traditional pepper cultivars to reduced fertilization and microbial biostimulants
Pepper traditional cultivars are good candidates for growth under sustainable conditions.
In this study, the effects of fertilization dose reduction (100, 75 and 50%) and the use of microbial biostimulants, Bactogreen® (N-fixing bacteria + K and P solubilizing bacteria) and Agromic® (endomycorrhizal mycorrhizal fungi), on physiological parameters and yield were evaluated.
The cultivars consisted of one traditional cultivar (‘Najerano’) and a hybrid (H1) resulting from the cross between ‘Najerano’ with a source of resistance to TSWV. In addition, a commercial cultivar, ‘Herminio’, was used as a control.
The net photosynthetic rate (An) of the three cultivars was not affected by decreasing fertilizer dose, and only in the commercial cultivar ‘Herminio’ did the intrinsic water use efficiency (WUEi) decrease by decreasing the F dose in treatments without B. There was also no effect of B application on An, except in ‘Najerano’ where an increase in AN was observed in the 100%F + B treatment.
In general, B increased WUEi, although in the case of the commercial cultivar no increase was observed at 100% F. Regarding leaf chlorophylls, a 50% decrease in fertilizer dose decreased the amount of chlorophyll in C and N, and in the commercial cultivar this decrease occurred at both 75 and 50% F. In contrast, biostimulants significantly increased the amount of chlorophyll in H regardless of the F dose.
Finally, the total yield of the cultivars tested was not affected by the fertilization treatments, whereas in the traditional cultivar N, although the yield did not vary, an increase in the number of fruits and a reduction in the average weight were observed in the treatments with lower fertilization doses.
The effect of biostimulants on N and H was significant, producing an increase in total production as a consequence of an increase in the number of fruits.
Sánchez-Sánchez, A., Hernández, V., Hellín, P., Mínguez, P., Jiménez-Pérez, M., Rodríguez-Burruezo, A., Fenoll, J. and Flores, P. (2025). Physiological and agronomic response of traditional pepper cultivars to reduced fertilization and microbial biostimulants. Acta Hortic. 1416, 245-250
DOI: 10.17660/ActaHortic.2025.1416.32
https://doi.org/10.17660/ActaHortic.2025.1416.32
DOI: 10.17660/ActaHortic.2025.1416.32
https://doi.org/10.17660/ActaHortic.2025.1416.32
biodiversity, sustainability, gas exchange, Capsicum annuum, landrace
English
1416_32
245-250