Evaluation Of Row Spacing And Mulching On Weed Control, Growth And Yield Of Green Pepper In Busia County, Kenya

ABSTRACT

Green pepper (Capsicum annuum) is one of the most important and remunerative vegetable crops. Row spacing and mulching are important factors that influence water use, weed suppression, growth, quality, and yield of vegetables. Due to increased pressure on land, climate change and increased demand for vegetables, there is need for deployment of optimal agronomical practices that will ensure enough food production. This study was undertaken to determine the optimum spacing and mulching for higher yields of green pepper in Kenya. The experiment was conducted during the long rainy season of 2015 (March-August) and validated during the short rainy season of 2015 (September-December) at Alupe sub-station of the Kenya Agricultural and Livestock Research Organization (KALRO). It was laid out in a randomized complete block design with factorial arrangement and treatments replicated three times. Two varieties of capsicum were used, California Wonder and Yolo Wonder under three spacings (50 × 40 cm, 40 × 40 cm, and 30 × 40 cm) and three types of mulches (black polythene mulch, transparent polythene mulch and straw mulch) while bare soil was used as the control. Data was collected on seedling vigor, plant height, number of leaves/plant, number of branches/plant, number of flowers/plant, stem girth, weed species/plot, weed vigor/plot, weeds fresh weight, weeds dry weight, fruit mass/plot, seed number/fruit, fruit length, fruit diameter, fruit number/plant and fruit number/plot. The collected data was subjected to Analysis of variance using SAS statistical software and where significant differences were observed means were separated using LSD at P≤0.05. Both green pepper varieties responded similarly to the treatment with mulching types showing significant (P≤0.05) differences in most of the growth, weed control and yield parameters. The black polythene mulch was the best mulch material in weed suppression by allowing the lowest weed biomass (207 g/m2) and number of weed species (