The effects of mineral and liquid organic fertilizers on some nutritional characteristics of bell pepper

Abstract

The economical effect of liquid organic fertilizer on agriculture may be a factor in the extension of its practice in larger areas. The rates of compost required to supply sufficient N requirements might be economically challenging for farmers. Therefore, the organic liquid fertilizers might help in reducing the need of high rates of compost to maintain proper N amount and in reducing the expenses. The objective of this study was to investigate the effects of mineral and liquid organic fertilizers on some nutritional characteristics of bell pepper. Results show that the main effects and interaction between cultivars and fertilizers were not statistically singificant on the subject parameters in this experiment. However, the application of mineral fertilizer resulted in the highest ascorbic acid content in fresh fruits (110.07 mg 100 g^-1). In comparison with liquid organic fertilizers, mineral fertilizer had higher levels in other parameters such as lipids (8.16 g 100 g^-1), fruit dry matter (13.39 g 100 g^-1), K (18.5 g kg^-1), Ca (0.83 g kg^-1), Mg (0.98 g kg^-1), Mn (7.9 mg kg^-1) and S (0.21 mg kg^-1). Ascorbic acid, protein and dry matter content were affected by the colour of fruit. Also, a higher ascorbic acid and Ca, acorbic acid and Mg, lipid and Ca contents suggest a positive correlation between these parameters. However mineral fertilizers had more favorable effects on quality of bell pepper, our results indicated that liquid organic fertilizers might be considered sufficient as a source of nutrients in organic growing.

Key words: Bell pepper, liquid organic fertilizer, quality, mineral fertilizer, ascorbic acid, mineral content.