Bell plants cultived pepper grown in CO₂ enriched environment. I. Vegetative growth

Abstract

The experiment was carried out at Esalq/USP, Piracicaba/SP. The objective of this work was to study the effects of elevated CO₂ concentrations and water volume on pepper crops, Capsicum annum L. (Solanaceae), planted in pots inside plastic greenhouse. The CO₂ was applied daily through micro tubes installed at 3m high over the rows of plants. A drip irrigation system, having one drip by plant, was used to irrigate the pots every other day. Four levels of CO₂ (367, 600, 800 and 1000µmol.mol^-1) and four water volumes (30,89L; 40,7L; 61,86L and 82,83L) with four replications were used. The height of plants, stem diameter and leaf area were analysed. It was observed that an increase in the water volume also increased the value of the plant parameters studied. In CO₂ enriched environments leaf area decrease and initial vegetative growth was more uniform