Drying of spice red chili pepper in polyethylene high tunnel hothouse

In this study a farm scale polyethylene high tunnel hothouse placed in Kahramanmaraş was used to dry spice red chili pepper. For drying purpose first the green stem and core were removed manually and the material was split into two pieces. Drying facilities in greenhouse consists of five rows of shelves spaced 30 cm in vertical direction. The fleshes of red chili peppers were homogeneously spread on the shelves as a thin layer by a density of 2, 3, 4 and 5 kg/m2, respectively. Drying was continued until the crop mass on trays decreases until one fifth. As a result it was found that the drying rate in the first period of drying was very fast in hothouse where the physical bound moisture was removed. This period corresponds to the first five to six hours of drying. The fastest drying was obtained between 1000 and 1500 hours where the air temperature in hothouse rises till to 55-65°C during the day. In terms of drying time solar dried red chili pepper was dried few hours shorter than that in sun dried crop. The main advantage of hothouse is the drying of red chili pepper in clean, sealed atmosphere where the risk of infestation could be easily eliminated. Another important advantage of hothouse is the temperature increase till to 60 ºC. This temperature rise will certainly contribute to disinfection of storage pests of red chili pepper. To improve the efficiency of solar collector and to distribute the air homogeneously in hothouse will certainly contribute the drying process and capacity. The experiences gained from this research should be supported by management skills in practice.