Abstract:
It is now crucial to include ecologically friendly fertilizers in the sustainable agricultural aim to
address the environmental problems associated with conventional approaches. It offers a way to
save expenses and the environmental effect while offering a plan to promote plant development
when paired with biofertilizers and Albert's Solution. Therefore, this study was conducted to
evaluate the impact of different ratios of Albert’s solution and fish tonic biofertilizer on the
growth and yield of curry chili (Capsicum annuum) under controlled conditions. The experiment
was carried out in the Faculty of Agriculture, University of Ruhuna, Matara from August to
October 2023. Uniform and vigorous curry chili plants were transplanted on open-top grow bags
filled with coconut coir dust media. Fish tonic biofertilizer was prepared by mixing fish waste and
brown sugar into 2:1 ratio and fermented for 28 days. Thereafter, the mixture was diluted up to
1:30 before application to the plants. There were five treatments in the study as follows: T1-100%
Albert’s solution, T2-80% Albert’s solution+20% fish tonic biofertilizer, T3-60% Albert’s
solution+40% fish tonic biofertilizer, T4-40% Albert’s solution+60% fish tonic biofertilizer and
T5-20% Albert’s solution+80% fish tonic biofertilizer. And arranged as a Completely Randomized
Design (CRD) with five replicates. Plant height, internode length and number of leaves/plants
were recorded at 50% flowering stage and number of pods/plant, pod weight and pod length
were measured at harvesting. Collected data were analyzed using Analysis of Variance (ANOVA)
from SAS 9.1.3 version. Subsequently, differences between treatment means were compared by
Duncan’s New Multiple Range Test at the 5% level of probability. According to the results,
significantly taller plants and greater internodal length were recorded from T1, T2 and T4
compared to other treatments. There was no significant effect of treatments on the number of
leaves per plant. A significantly higher number of pods/plants was obtained from T3, T4 and T5
treatments. Further, weight of the pods and length of the pods were significantly higher in T4.
Therefore, the study suggests that different ratios of Albert’s solution and fish tonic biofertilizer
improve the growth and yield of curry chili under controlled environmental conditions.
