Poultry manure and arbuscular mycorrhiza fungi remediation of sodium chloride induced substrate salinity for Pepper production

Abstract

Pepper (Capsicum annum) is an important spice in the world, but the production is constrained by soil salinity. Hence, this study aims to explore the use of organic manure and Arbuscular Mycorrhiza Fungi in reducing the soil saline state for pepper cultivation. Two genotypes of cherry pepper were planted in the following treatment combinations; Cocopeat + poultry manure, Cocopeat + 10 mg/ml NaCL, 10 mg/ml NaCL + 250 g/4kg cocopeat, 10 mg/ml NaCL + 250 g/4kg cocopeat + 5 g of AMF, Cocopeat + 20 mg/ml NaCL, 20 mg/ml NaCL + 250 g/4kg cocopeat and 20 mg/ml NaCL + 250 g/4kg cocopeat + 5 g of AMF. The experiment was arranged in a completely randomized design with three replicates. The agronomic and yield parameters were collected and analysed using ANOVA and means were separated using DMRT at 5% significance level. Results obtained showed that the tallest plants, highest number of nodes, number of fruits and fruit weight (kg) were observed in the control (14.85±0.49), (20.50±0.68), (8.67±0.52) and (1.38±0.08), respectively, although they were not significantly different from the addition of 250 g of poultry manure and 5 g of AMF to 4 kg cocopeat substrate.