Effects of pruning on the earliness, yield and fruit quality of bell pepper (Capsicum annuum L.)

Due to the investigate the combining effects of main branch removal and topping of side shoots on bell pepper, an experiment was set up in a Quonset type, unheated PE greenhouse in spring-summer growing period in 2013. The experimental layout of the study was a factorial design with three replications. Pruning treatments, comprising main branch removing (either to leave three or four main branch), topping of side shoots on the main branches after one fruit was produced and no pruning (control), and three commercial bell pepper cultivars, Hadise F1, Ergenekon F1 and Punto F1 were applied to plots in the experiment. Seedlings of bell pepper cultivars were planted with 130x50x35 cm spacing between the double rows, rows and between the plants in rows, respectively. Most of the criteria studied in the experiment were negatively affected by removal of main branch. Evaluation of main branch removal for each cultivar revealed that limitation of main branch to three or four result in lower values for all yield and quality characteristics in each cultivar. Additionally, the effect of topping of side shoots on all studied characteristics did not differ from those of non-topped plants.