Soil fertility, Variety planted, feeding, irrigation, pests and weed management are among the major factors that determine the production yield of any crop.
However, there are other factors which though seem insignificant, have a great influence on production. Curing, Spacing, mulching, pruning and DE suckering are such factors which if not done well can lead to low yields.
In this article, we are analysing if there is any difference in capsicum yields with different planting spacing of 50 x 40 cm,40 x 40cm and 30 x 40cm. Different agronomists advise on different crop spacing but why advise on one and not the other and which one has the highest yield?
Why spacing
The importance of spacing in crops is basically to regulate competition for the available water and mineral nutrients from the soil and light.
A wider spacing means low competition leading to a strong vigorous crop with strong branches and good fruit. Yet, the farmer will still get low yields due to low crop population density.
Smaller spacing means high crop population density which leads to tall plants with weak branches and small fruits due to high competition. This results in low yields too.
From observation, the capsicum yield per plant is significantly influenced by spacing level. Wider spacing of 50 x 40cm produces crops with the maximum number of branches per plant but with low population density while a spacing of 30 x 40 cm produced the lowest number of branches.
Wider spacing of 40 x 40 cm facilitates the plants to develop properly with less inter and intra-plant competition for utilizing the available resources resulting in a higher yield per plant compared to the closest spacing of 30 x 40 cm.
The lower population densities in 50 x 40 cm spacing produce more vigorous crops than at high population densities in 30 x 40 cm but cannot compensate for the small number of plants per unit area.
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Though fruits per plant are high in the widest spacing of 50 x 40 cm, a reduced average yield per plant is observed due to a higher number of plants per square meter.
The correct spacing
A spacing of 40 x 40 cm results, on the other hand, results in a higher yield with a narrow spacing of 30 cm x 30 cm resulting in the lowest yield due to reduced fruit weight.
The spacing of 40 cm x 40cm is therefore found to be the best for the production of capsicums.
However, spacing alone cannot guarantee a high yield. Sufficient irrigation, correct feeding, and pests and disease management are also paramount for high yield.
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