Effect of growing environment and planting dates on growth and yield of coloured capsicum under Tripura condition

Capsicum is cultivated in very limited scale in Tripura as high value crop. Therefore, the present investigation was under taken to standardize the growing environment in response to planting time for green and coloured capsicum. Significantly maximum plant height and main stem girth were recorded under naturally ventilated polyhouse environment when transplanted on 30th October with values of 94.5 cm and 16.2 mm for Indra, 96.7 cm and 16.9 mm and 98.6 cm for Orobelle and 16.5 mm for Bomby, respectively. Early flowering and fruiting was also induced under protected environment. This treatment also resulted in higher number of fruits/plant (16.6, 16.1 and 14.0 in the respective hybrids along with maximum number of harvesting/plant (6.4, 6.2 and 5.6, respectively), fruit weight (162.0, 160.0 and 158.5 g, respectively), fruit length (12.8, 12.7 and 11.9 cm, respectively) and diameter (8.1, 8.9 and 8.5 cm, respectively). Pericarp thickness was comparatively higher in the coloured hybrids under protected environment than open field. Yield/m2 was in the range of 8.5 kg (Bomby) to 10 kg (Indra) in polyhouse. Under open field and 30th October transplanting, yield was only 1.3 kg/plant with 4.8 kg/m2 in hybrid Indra, however, this was higher than the coloured capsicum hybrids. Hybrid Indra performed better when transplanted on 30th October. Plants transplanted on 30th October or 30th January may be retained after proper training and with better cultural practices for summer season fruiting to extend the fruiting period for summer season under Tripura condition.