Ornamental Pepper on Reflective Bench Under Protected Environments

Abstract

Plant ambiance studies the environmental condition favorable to plant growth at the initial stage of seedlings or the complete production cycle. This study aimed to evaluate the cultivation of the ornamental pepper 'Pyramid' under protected environments and growing benches with and without reflective material. The protected environments consisted of a greenhouse covered with low-density polyethylene film and 42/50% shading thermo-reflective screen under the film, structure with 35% shading thermoreflective aluminized screen, and structure with 30% shading black screen. The growing benches were tested in environments without and with reflective material made of aluminized screen. The environment of the agricultural greenhouse covered with lowdensity polyethylene film and 42/50% thermo-reflective screen under the film favored the growth of ornamental pepper plants regarding height and diameter and provided early flowering and high fruit production. The use of the reflective material showed no significant results for plant height, stem diameter, and the number of leaves. The use of reflective material increased the number of fruits in plants under the environments with 35% shading aluminized screen and 30% shading black screen.

PROTECTED ENVIRONMENTS AND REFLECTIVE MATERIAL IN THE PRODUCTION OF Hymenaea courbaril SEEDLINGS

“…It is observed that the distribution of shoot and root phytomass follows a proportion, on average, from 69% to 31%, that is, of the total phytomass of H. courbaril seedlings, 69% is shoot and 31% is from the root system, regardless the cultivation environment and the use or not of reflective material on the bench (Figure 6). This phytomass distribution found for H. courbaril seedlings (69% shoot and 31% root system) is similar to the distribution observed for papaya seedlings (Carica papaya) by Cabral et al (2020), who found, on average, 67% for the shoot and 33% for the root system, as well as for achachairu (Garcinia humilis) seedlings, in which Silva et al (2021) found 68% for the shoot and 32% for the root system. Means followed by the same lowercase letter in the comparison of environments within each production system and by the same capital letter in the comparison of production systems within each environment do not differ by the Tukey test and F test, respectively, both at a 5% probability.…”

“…This technique recently studied in plant production is based on the greater availability of light energy with materials that reflect photosynthetically active radiation, contributing to the photosynthetic process. In the scientific literature, reports of the benefits of using benches with reflective material were found, such as the increase in the plant growth rate of Passiflora edulis seedlings (SANTOS et al, 2017) and fruits (COSTA et al, 2021). In the production of Syzygium cumini seedlings on benches with reflective material, they showed higher quality, according to the Dickson quality index, in environments of 30% and 50% of shading compared to those without the reflective material (SALLES et al, 2017).…”