Responses of Furrow Irrigated Paprika Pepper Cultivars on Yield and Crop Water Stress Index (CWSI) Under Semi-Arid Climate Condition

This study was conducted on research field of Rural Services Research Institute in Harran Plain in Turkey to determine response of paprika pepper (cvs., Ace, Queen and King) to furrow irrigation. The influence of furrow irrigation methods on yield, growth (i.e., leaf area index and plant height), physiology (i.e., total chlorophyll content), quality (i.e., fruit moisture, ASTA, capsaicin, vitamin C and beta carotene) and potential use of CWSI were investigated. Furrow irrigation treatments were conventional furrow irrigation (CFI), deficit furrow irrigation (DFI) and partial root drying (PRD-50 and PRD-25). 50% and 25% of water applied to CFI were given to PDR-50 and PRD-25, respectively. The DFI received 50% of the water given to CFI. Irrigation water supplied was between 238-952 mm whereas Evapotranspiration (ET) was between 438-1050 mm. The highest yield (2310 kgda(-1)) was obtained from CFI and the lowest yield (994 kgda(-1)) was obtained from PRD-25. Leaf area index (LAI) varied between 0.85-2.67, vitamin C between 950.50-2233.10 mgkg(-1) and total chlorophyll content between 475.11-685.15 mgkg(-1), water use efficiency (WUE) between 2.73 and 1.86 kgm(-3), CWSI between 0.17-0.89. Highly significant correlations between CWSI and paprika pepper parameters such as LAI, ET, Vitamin C and chlorophyll content were determined. Interactions between cultivars and furrow application methods were found significant (p < 0.01). Although CFI gave the best result in terms of yield, PRD-50 was recommended under water deficit conditions since both yield and quality parameters were better.