Hostname: page-component-669899f699-rg895 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-05-02T00:45:45.571Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Yield and fruit quality response of sweet pepper to organic and mineral fertilization

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 August 2007

F.M. del Amor
F.M. del Amor*
Affiliation:
Instituto Murciano de Investigación y Desarrollo Agrario y Alimentario (IMIDA), c/ Mayor s/n, 30150La Alberca, Murcia, Spain.
*
*Corresponding author: franciscom.delamor@carm.es
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Sweet pepper plants were grown in a greenhouse under three different cultivation methods (organic, integrated and conventional farming). During the crop cycle, plant growth and especially yield and fruit quality parameters were monitored to determine the effects of the different fertilization strategies. Plant fresh weight and total leaf fresh weight were progressively reduced, relative to the other treatments, in the organic treatment compared with the conventional, and at the end of the crop cycle these parameters were reduced by 32.6 and 35% respectively. This reduction in growth was directly correlated with plant nitrate concentration and, at the end of the study, nitrate concentration was reduced almost completely in the organic treatment. Despite the important effect on growth, no significant differences in total marketable yield were observed between conventional and organic farming, although integrated farming showed the highest yield in the extra and first class fruit categories. Organic farming increased antioxidant activity but reduced both chlorophylls and β-carotene. Fruit firmness, pericarp thickness, pH and total soluble solids content showed higher values with the organic method, but these differences were not significant with respect to the conventional method. Our results show the advantages of the organic fertilization, from both environmental and economic perspectives, if proper dosage is added to the crop and the demonstrated buffer capacity of these plants, with respect to maintaining yield under nutrient depletion at later stages of development, is taken into account.

Keywords

Capsicum annuum LnitrateN limitationantioxidant activityfertilization strategies
Type
Research Article
Information
Renewable Agriculture and Food Systems , Volume 22 , Issue 3 , September 2007 , pp. 233 - 238
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2007

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Article purchase

Temporarily unavailable

References

1 Gastal, F. and Lemaire, G. 2002. N uptake and distribution in crops: an agronomical and ecological perspective. Journal of Experimental Botany 53:789–799.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
2 Li, M. and Yost, R.S. 2000. Management-oriented modeling: optimizing nitrogen management with artificial intelligence. Agricultural Systems 65:1–27.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
3 Glass, A.D.M. 2003. Nitrogen use efficiency of crop plants: physiological constraints upon nitrogen absorption. Critical Reviews in Plant Sciences 22:453–470.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
4 Tremblay, N., Scharpf, H.-C., Weier, U., Laurence, H., and Owen, J. 2001. Nitrogen Management in Field Vegetables. A Guide to Efficient Fertilisation. Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada. p. 65. Available at Web site: http://sci.agr.ca/stjean/publication/bulletin/nitrogen-azote_e.htm (verified 19 January 2007).Google Scholar
5 Mulvaney, R.L., Khan, S.A., Hoeft, R.G., and Brown, H.M. 2001. A soil organic nitrogen fraction that reduces the need for nitrogen fertilization. Soil Science Society of America Journal 65:1164–1172.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
6 Worthington, V. 2001. Nutritional quality of organic versus conventional fruits, vegetables, and grains. Journal of Complementary and Alternative Medicine 7:161–173.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
7 Benbrook, C.M. 2005. Elevating Antioxidant Levels in Food through Organic Farming and Food Processing. Available at Web site: http://www.organic-center.org/reportfiles/Antioxidant_SSR.pdf (verified 28 October 2004).Google Scholar
8 Bourn, D. and Prescott, J.A. 2002. Comparison of the nutritional value, sensory qualities and food safety of organically and conventionally produced foods. Critical Reviews in Food Science and Nutrition 42:1–34.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
9 Miller, N.J., Sampson, J., Candeias, L.P., Bramley, P.M., and Rice-Evan, C.A. 1996. Antioxidant activities of carotenes and xanthophylls. FEBS Letters 384:240–242.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
10 Nagata, M. and Yamashita, I. 1992. Simple method for simultaneous determination of chlorophyll and carotenoids in tomato fruit. Journal of the Japan Society for Food Science Technology 121:1117–1121.Google Scholar
11 Van Delden, A. 2001. Yield and growth components of potato and wheat under organic nitrogen management. Agronomy Journal 93:1370–1385.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
12 Del Amor, F.M. and Marcelis, L.F.M. 2004. Regulation of K uptake, water uptake, and growth of tomato during K starvation and recovery. Scientia Horticulturae 100:83–101.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
13 Del Amor, F.M. and Marcelis, L.F.M. 2003. Regulation of nutrient uptake, water uptake and growth under calcium starvation and recovery. Journal of the Horticultural Science and Biotechnology 78:343–349.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
14 Dinnes, D.L., Karlen, D.L., Jaynes, D.B., Kaspar, T.C., Hatfield, J.L., Colvin, T.S., and Cambardella, C.A. 2002. Nitrogen management strategies to reduce nitrate leaching in tile-drained midwestern soils. Agronomy Journal 94:153–171.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
15 Martinez, V., Del Amor, F.M., and Marcelis, L.F.M. 2005. Growth and physiological response of tomato plants to different periods of nitrogen starvation and recovery. Journal of Horticultural Science and Biotechnology 80:147–153.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
16 Starkey, K.R. and Andersson, N.E. 2000. Effects of light and nitrogen supply on the allocation of dry matter and calcium in poinsettia (Euphorbia pulcherrima Willd. ex Klotzsch). Journal of Horticultural Science and Biotechnology 75:251–258.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
17 Steingrover, E., Oosterhuis, R., and Wieringa, F. 1982. Effect of light treatment and nutrition on nitrate accumulation in Spinach (Spinacia oleraceae L.). Zeitschrift fur Planzenphysiologie 107:97–102.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
18 De Groot, C.C., Marcelis, L.F.M., Van Den Boogaard, R., and Lambers, H. 2002. Interactive effects of nitrogen and irradiance on growth and partitioning of dry mass and nitrogen in young tomato plants. Functional Plant Biology 29:1319–1328.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
19 Papadopoulos, A.P. 1991. Growing Greenhouse Tomatoes in Soil and in Soilless Media. Agriculture and Canada Publication. Available at Web site: http://sci.agr.ca/harrow/publications/pub1865_e.htm (verified 19 January 2007).Google Scholar
20 Siddiqi, M.Y., Kronzucker, H.J., Britto, D.T., and Glass, A.D.M. 1998. Growth of a tomato crop at reduced nutrient concentrations as a strategy to limit eutrophication. Journal of Plant Nutrition 21:1879–1895.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
21 Carballo, S.J., Blankenship, S.M., and Sanders, D.C. 1994. Drip fertigation with nitrogen and potassium and postharvest susceptibility to bacterial soft rot of bell peppers. Journal of Plant Nutrition 17:1175–1191.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
22 Qawasmi, M., Mohammad, M.J., Najim, H., and Qubursi, R. 1999. Response of bell pepper grown inside plastic houses to nitrogen fertigation. Communications in Soil Science and Plant Analysis 30:2499–2509.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
23 Kutik, J., Lubomir, N., Demmers-Derks, H.H., and Lawlor, D.W. 1995. Chloroplast ultrastructure of sugar beet (Beta vulgaris L.) cultivated in normal and elevated CO2 concentrations with two contrasted nitrogen supplies. Journal of Experimental Botany 46:1797–1802.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
24 Pellegrini, N., Serafini, M., Colombi, B., Del Rio, D., Salvatore, S., Bianchi, M., and Brighenti, F. 2003. Total antioxidant capacity of plant foods, beverages and oils consumed in Italy assessed by three different in vitro assays. Journal of Nutrition 133:2812–2819.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
25 Gey, K., Puska, F.P., Jordanand, P., and Moser, U.K. 1991. Total antioxidant capacity of plant foods. Inverse correlation between plasma vitamin E and mortality from ischemic heart disease in cross-cultural epidemiology. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition 53:326–334.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
26 La Vecchia, C., Altieri, A., and Tavani, A. 2001. Vegetables, fruit, antioxidants and cancer: a review of Italian studies. European Journal of Nutrition 40:261–267.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
27 Markus, F.H., Daood, G., Kapitany, J., and Biacs, P.A. 1999. Change in the carotenoid and antioxidant content of spice red pepper paprika as a function of ripening and some technological factors. Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry 47:100–107.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
28 Hornero-Mendez, D., Guevara, R.G.-L.D., and Minguez-Mosquera, M.I. 2000. Carotenoid biosynthesis changes in five red pepper (Capsicum annuum) cultivars during ripening. Cultivar selection for breeding. Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry 48:3857–3864.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
29 Marin, A., Ferreres, F., Tomas, F.A., and Gil, M.I. 2004. Characterization and quantitation of antioxidant constituents of sweet pepper (Capsicum annuum L.). Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry 52:3861–3869.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
30 Davis, D.R. and Riordan, H.D. 2004. Changes in USDA food composition data for 43 garden crops, 1950 to 1999. Journal of the American College of Nutrition 26:1–2.Google Scholar