Module V: Chili Pepper Plant Nutrition

1. Module V: Chili Pepper Plant Nutrition • Lesson 2: Importance of Primary Nutrients Unit 3: Potassium Nutrition • After completing this Unit, you will be able to answer: • What is the role of potassium in plants? • How do you decide whether to apply potassium or not? • What is the recommended rate of potassium application to chili pepper crop? • What is the method of potassium application to chili pepper ? • Under what conditions potassium is applied as top dressing? • Which potassic fertilizer is useful to chili pepper crop and why?

2. Module V: Chili Pepper Plant Nutrition • Lesson 2: Importance of Primary Nutrients Unit 3: Potassium Nutrition • Though potassium application is not regularly practiced, it plays equally important role as nitrogen and phosphorus in plants for their growth and development. • Potassium is involved in the plants to: • provide resistance to insect pests, diseases, and water stress; • use the water economically; • improve the quality of the crop produce.

3. Module V: Chili Pepper Plant Nutrition • Lesson 2: Importance of Primary Nutrients Unit 3: Potassium Nutrition Potassium is to a plant what breaks are to a car. Good brakes are a must for safe journey to reach the destination and so is potassium for good quality crop produce. Usually it is considered that most of the Indian soils are rich in potassium. Is this true in case of the soil in your field?

4. Module V: Chili Pepper Plant Nutrition • Lesson 2: Importance of Primary Nutrients Unit 3: Potassium Nutrition Make sure that the soil will meet the potassium needs of the chili pepper crop in your field through soil testing. If the soil test reveals that the available potassium is less than recommended rates then there is a need to apply potassium in that field. Normally, about 50 to 150 Ib K2O/acre will be adequate for chili pepper sown in soils deficient in potassium.

5. Module V: Chili Pepper Plant Nutrition • Lesson 2: Importance of Primary Nutrients Unit 3: Potassium Nutrition Potassium uptake is greater in the early part of chili pepper growth than that of nitrogen and phosphorus. So, potassium fertilizers are usually applied in one dose at the time of sowing. However, in light soils, to minimize the loss of potassium due to leaching under heavy rainfall conditions, apply potassium in two splits doses. In such cases, the top dressing is to be done 30 to 40 days of sowing.

6. Module V: Chili Pepper Plant Nutrition • Lesson 2: Importance of Primary Nutrients Unit 3: Potassium Nutrition Potassium fertilizers are placed along with nitrogen and phosphorus either in the seed furrows or side dressed before sowing. Potassium is top dressed along with nitrogen application, if any. The fertilizers are applied near the rows of the chili pepper plants and incorporated either by inter-cultivation or by manual weeding. There should be sufficient moisture in the soil at the time of this top dressing of fertilizers.

7. Module V: Chili Pepper Plant Nutrition • Lesson 2: Importance of Primary Nutrients Unit 3: Potassium Nutrition With this, the Unit 3 on Potassium Nutrition, and this Lesson on the Importance of Primary Nutrients concludes. The next Lesson is about the importance of other plant nutrients for chili pepper. The last lesson is about application of manures and fertilizers in chili pepper. Select Lesson 3 from Module V contents