JOURNAL OF FOOD AGRICULTURE & ENVIRONMENT, vol.9, no.2, pp.686-688, 2011 (SCI-Expanded)
In this study, effects of applications of irrigation water with various levels of salt contents on some physical properties of the pepper plants grown on various soil textures were investigated. For this purpose, a pot experiment was carried out and pepper plants were grown on soils with clay, sand and clay loam textures and irrigated with water having different EC values (control [0.7], 1, 2 and 3 dS/m) prepared by addition of NaCl. The experiment was set up in a randomized factorial block design with four replicates. Together with height and stem diameter of the plants, the length, diameter and pulp thickness of the harvested fruit samples were measured at the end of the harvest term. At the end of the experiment, the effects of EC applications and textures over the height, stem diameter of the pepper plant and fruit length were significant, however, the effects of EC*Texture interactions were insignificant. Over the fruit diameter and fruit pulp thickness, the effects of irrigation water ECs, soil texture and the interaction between these two factors were statistically insignificant. In general, at EC levels above 1 dS/m, the pepper plant height shortened, stem diameter increased and fruit length shortened. Moreover, the average of the highest plant height and stem diameter; and the average of the highest fruit length were acquired from the plants growing in clay loam textured soil.