BLACK HABANERO PEPPER (Capsicum chinense Jaq.) HYDROPONICS PRODUCTION

Abstract

Black habanero pepper (Capsicum chinense Jacq.), is a crop grown in small areas of the Michoacan coast, despite its economic importance given by its high degree of pungency and high culinary demand. A factor that restrains greenhouse production is pollination and therefore fruit yield; thus, the aim of the study was to evaluate the effect of the application of a hormonal complex on black habanero pepper (CNH) fruit production. The experiment was carried out under acrylic and plastic greenhouse. Transplanting was performed in April 2015 into black plastic bags filled with 4.0 kg of tezontle (red gravel), a balanced nutritive solution was applied on a daily basis through ferti-irrigation (up to 1.0 L per day) using a drip system. Treatments consisted of 1) hormonal complex based on cytokinins (CH) at a dose of 0.5 mL L^-1 applied every 10 d, and 2) control without application (T). A completely randomized experimental design was used taking a single plant as a replication. The evaluated traits were plant height, stem width, fruit length, diameter and yield, and capsaicin content. Analysis of variance and Tukey multiple comparison test (P < 0.05) were applied using SAS for Windows. Results indicated that all evaluated traits, except for fruit diameter, were statistically significant with higher values for CH specially for yield per plant (< 160 %), fruit weight (> 30 %) and crop vigor (> 15 %). Furthermore, alkaloid content was 60 % higher in CH than in relation to T. Fruit yield and quality of CHN is feasible to increase through cytokinins-based CH application.