Influence of Kraal Manure, Chicken Manure and Inorganic Fertilizer on Growth, Yield and Post-harvest Quality of Pepper (Capsicum annuum L.) in a Sub-tropical Environment

The excessive unjustified use of some kinds of fertilizers has seen some farmers realizing poor quality fruit that does not appeal to the final consumer, thus negatively affecting the effort of alleviating poverty in the Kingdom of Eswatini. This experiment was carried out at the Horticulture Department Lath House, Faculty of Agriculture, Luyengo Campus of the University of Eswatini to determine the growth, yield and shelf-life of green pepper when fertilized with kraal manure, poultry manure and inorganic fertilizer. The experiment was conducted to find the optimum levels of fertilizers that promotes the growth of pepper and to find the effects of different fertilizers on yield and quality of pepper. The treatments included kraal manure applied at 60 t/ha, [NPK (2:3:2) 37] at 370 kg/ha, chicken manure at 40 t per hectare and the control with no amendment. The results showed that growing pepper using the four treatments significantly affected its growth rate, leaf number, fruit number and its (fruit) shelf life. Pepper grown using inorganic fertilizer had the highest leaf number followed in decreasing order by chicken manure, kraal manure and lastly peppers which did not receive any amendment. There were no significant difference in the growth rate of pepper in the inorganic fertilizer and chicken manure treatments. Similarly, there was no significant difference of pepper grown with chicken manure and chemical fertilizer in the number of days it took the harvested pepper to reach 100% decay stored at room temperature for 21 days. Yet pepper grown with kraal manure was significantly different from the two as it showed 20% decay rate in the same number of days. Although the control had the least decay, the yield was the lowest thus it is not recommended. Kraal manure at 60 t/ha is recommended in the production of pepper with a longer shelf life.