A Comparison of 13 Sweet Pepper Varieties under an Organic Farming System

Abstract

There is a dearth of information on pepper (Capsicum annuum) variety production under organic conditions; therefore, a randomized complete block designed experiment of 13 pepper varieties were evaluated in 2016 and 2017 using organic production practices on land managed organically for the 6 previous years. Total yield, graded yield, and early yield were the main factors of interest. There were by-year interactions, so the data were analyzed separately for each year. All of the peppers evaluated except for ‘Sweet Chocolate’ were bell pepper types. The average total yield was 1229 and 1754 boxes/acre (28 lb/box) in 2016 and 2017, respectively. There were no statistically significant differences for total yield or early total yield in 2016. In 2017, the top five highest yielding varieties were Aristotle X3R®, Gridiron, King Arthur, Flavorburst, and Blitz. With the exception of ‘Flavorburst’, all of these entries were among the highest yielding for fancy fruit (≥3 inches diameter and 3.5 inches length). The greatest early yield in 2017 included ‘Aristotle X3R®’, ‘Flavorburst’, ‘Touchdown’, ‘Islander’, and ‘Gridiron’. In 2017, early yields of fancy fruit greater than 100 boxes/acre included ‘Aristotle X3R®’, ‘Red Knight X3R®’, ‘Blitz’, and ‘Gridiron’.