The impact of calcite-based biostimulants applied during the growing season on sweet pepper seed germination

Abstract

Sweet pepper (Capsicum annuum L.) is an annual herbaceous plant of the Solanaceae family, which is one of the most important agricultural crops due to its exceptional economic importance, the nutritional value of its fruits and its confirmed antioxidant activity. The aim of this work was to determine the influence of the application of calcite-based biostimulants during the growing season on the germination of sweet pepper seeds. In the 2019 growing season, the calcite-based biostimulants Eco Green and Zeogreen+P were foliar applied on two sweet pepper cultivars (bell fruit type – ‘Šorokšari’ and capia fruit type – ‘Kurtovska kapija’). At the end of the growing season, 300 seeds from each cultivar were collected (100 seeds from plants treated with each of the two biostimulants and 100 seeds from plants that had not been treated during the growing season - control) and placed for germination under controlled conditions at a constant temperature of 25 oC and a light regime of 16/8 h day/night. At the end of the experimental period, the seed germination parameters were calculated. It was found that the application of the calcite-based biostimulant Eco Green had a statistically significant positive effect on the germinability (G, %), mean germination rate (MR), the uncertainty of the germination process (U) and germination index (GI) in both cultivars and on mean germination time (MGT, day) in the cultivar ‘Kurtovska kapija’. The calcite-based biostimulant Zeogreen had no statistically significant positive effect on the germination parameters, except for the germinability (G, %) in the cultivar ‘Kurtovska kapija’.

Keywords

• capsicum annuum l.
• cultivar
• eco green
• germination parameters
• zeogreen+p