Evaluation of hot pepper (Capsicum annuum L.) cultivars for growth and dry pod yields against different blended fertilizer and nitrogen rates in raya Azebo, Southern Tigray

Hot pepper (Capsicum annum L.) is the most widely cultivated and economically important crop. However, its production and productivities are constrained by different factors in which Cultivar and fertilizer level are the major ones. Thus, the experiment was conducted on two hot pepper cultivars (Melka Shote and Melka Awaze) and six rates NPSZn + urea; to determine the growth and yield response of hot pepper cultivars to different levels NPSZn + urea and interaction effect of both factors. A factorial RCBD (2*6) was used for the experiment and each treatment was replicated thrice. Growth, penological and yield data were collected and and analyzed using SAS version 9.3. ANOVA revealed that plant height, days to first harvest, total leaf area, leaf area index, number of pods plant^-1, marketable, unmarketable and total dry pod yield and pod length were significantly (p<0.05) affected by the interaction effect of cultivars and NPSZn + urea rates. The main effect of cultivars and NPSZn + urea exerted highly significant (p<0.01) and significant (p<0.05) difference on canopy diameter respectively. While days to 50% flowering was highly significantly (p<0.01) influenced by interaction effect of cultivars and NPSZn + urea. Number of primary and secondary branches were highly significantly (p<0.01) affected by the main effect of cultivars and NPSZn + urea respectively. The highest (2.24 t ha^-1) and the lowest (1.46 t ha^-1) total dry pod yield were obtained at the combined effect of Melka Shote with 84.5NPSZn+136.5 urea kg ha^-1 and with the control respectively. It is suggested to repeat the study to come up with sound recommendation suitable for the area.