Influence of Agricultural Practices on Fruit Quality of Bell Pepper

Abstract

An experiment was carried out under plastic house conditions to compare the effect of four fermented organic matter sources (cattle, poultry and sheep manure in addition to 1:1:1 mixture of the three organic matter sources) in which 4 kg organic matter m(-2) were used, with that of the conventional agriculture (chemical fertilizers) treatments on Marvello red pepper fruit quality, by using a Randomized Complete Block Design (RCBD) with four replicates. Pepper fruits characteristics cultivated in soil supplemented with manure were generally better than those from plants grown in soil only. Addition of animal manure increased bell pepper fruit content of soluble solids, ascorbic acid, total phenols, crude fibre and intensity of red color as compare with conventional agriculture that produced fruits with higher titratable acidity, water content, lycopene and bigger fruit size. In most cases of animal manure treatments, best results were obtained by the sheep manure treatment that produced the highest TSS, while the worst results were obtained by the poultry manure treatment that produced the smallest fruit and lowest fruit lycopene content.

Quality and Nutrient Contents of Fruits Produced Under Organic Conditions

“…The highest strawberry crude fibre fruit value (8.13%) was obtained by the 4.5 kg organic matter/m 2 , which was significantly different from the conventional, and control treatments [13]. Although, crude fiber of bell pepper fruit was improved by the use of the cattle manure which produced the highest (2.96%) crude fiber content in comparison to the conventional system which produced the lowest content (2.8%) [23].…”

“…In another study conducted on red pepper fruits, the highest anthocyanin (38.5 mg 100 g -1 ) amount was obtained by the mixture of different organic matter treatment. And the least anthocyanic content was obtained by the conventional culture system, which proves that organic farming provides peppers with the highest intensities of red and yellow colors, while the conventional fruits were those with the lowest values of color intensity [23].…”

“…The fruit taste is highly affected by the fruit pH; addition of organic materials was found to lower the strawberry fruit pH, especially by using sheep manure as a source of organic matter [24]. However, in an experiment conducted on pepper plant, results do not show any significant differences between all of the used organic and inorganic treatments on fruit pH [23].…”

“…It is recorded that fruit lycopene content was the highest in conventional agriculture, but without significant differences from the different organic matter sources. Also fruit lycopene was affected by the organic matter source, and the lowest lycopene content was obtained by the poultry manure source-treated pepper fruits, which means lycopene fruit content does not improve by the use of organic matter treatments in comparison to conventional agriculture that hastened fruit lycopene content [23].…”

Hydrolyzed Organic Fish Fertilizer and Poultry Litter Influence Total Phenolics and Antioxidants Content but Not Yield of Amaranth, Celosia, Gboma, and Long Bean

“…Zhao et al (2007) reported that the levels of phenolic compounds in lettuce were consistently impacted by the nutrient source and suggested that this could have been related to general factors including the environment, season, and cultivar differences. Additionally, peppers and garden peas fertilized with organic manure have been previously shown to have higher vitamin C, total phenolics, and anthocyanin content (Abu-Zahra, 2011;Jaipaul et al, 2010). Similarly, broccoli treated with organic and bio-organic fertilizers produced antioxidants with greater chelating power (El-Moniem et al, 2012).…”