ABSTRACT
Peppers are very sensitive to temperature and are considered to be a warm weather crop, even more so than tomatoes. Peppers grow very poorly at temperatures below 13°C, and a light frost will kill the plants. There are about 20 species of peppers in the Solanaceae family. Pepper is a much branched, shrubby perennial herb which is native to tropical America. Many cultivars require 65-80 days after transplanting to reach market maturity, but an additional 2-4 weeks are needed to obtain substantial yields of ripe fruits. The world production of chili plus green peppers in 1979 was 6.67 million metric tons produced on 890,000 ha. Pepper plants that have received inadequate nitrogen are typified by stunted growth and moderately to severely chlorotic leaves. The appearance of visibly detectable N deficiency symptoms is associated with a whole plant tissue N level of 1.25% or less.
