Ornamental pepper on colored reflective benches and different protected environments in agroecological transition

Abstract

The cultivation of pepper has intensified throughout Brazil, including ornamental peppercorns, and can serve as an alternative for generating income in family agriculture. The present work had the objective of evaluating different colors of reflective materials on benches in protected environments in agroecological transition with different shading levels for the production of ornamental pepper in the region of Cassilândia - MS. The experiments were developed at the State University of Mato Grosso do Sul, Cassilândia-MS Unit. Three cultivation environments with different levels of shade were used: 1) Agricultural greenhouse with 22% shading (A1); Agricultural greenhouse with 42% shading (A2) and Agricultural cloth with 18% shading (A3). Three types of light reflecting materials arranged on the benches were evaluated within each cultivation environment, forming 4 different benches, being a bench without colored reflective material (Witness), bench made of red laminated paper, laminated paper of color blue and Silver color laminated paper (aluminium paper). The experiment was conducted in a completely randomized design with 5 replicates of 5 plants. The height and diameter of plants, number of flower buds, flowers and fruits per plant, roundness and sphericity of fruits were analyzed. The data were submitted to analysis of variance (F test) and the means compared by the Scott-Knott test 5% probability. The environment with 42% shading, formed plants with greater amount of fruits and the reflective benches did not influence in the variables of growth and production.