Production of pepper under concentrations of treated sewage effuent

Abstract

The appropriate management of treated sewage effluent (TSE) represents an alternative to irrigation. When used for cultivation in a protected environment, such as a greenhouse, the stability and quality of production can be guaranteed. Thus, the present study aimed to evaluate the morphological and productive characteristics of yellow finger pepper in a protected environment, submitted to five concentrations of treated sewage effluent (T1: 100% fluvial water; T2: 75% fluvial water + 25% TSE; T3: 50% fluvial water + 50% TSE; T4: 25% fluvial water + 75% TSE and T5: 100% TSE), applied through drip irrigation. The experiment was conducted in the central region of Brazil, from June to December 2017. The experimental design was randomized completely blocks with 4 repetition. The morphological and productivity characteristics of the pepper plants were submitted to analysis of variance (F-test), at the of 5% probability level. For the variables in which there were significant treatment effects at p < 0.05, applied regression analysis. There were no statistically significant differences between treatments for the morphological characteristics: plant height, stem diameter, number of leaves, cup diameter, root fresh weight and root dry weight. Among the productive characteristics, productivity and fruit length differed statistically at p < 0.05. The microbiological analysis did not detect contamination both for fruit spares and for seeds. In the analysis of water and residual in the soil, there was a statistical difference between the concentrations of zinc. The increase in the concentration of treated domestic sewage caused a drop in the productivity.