Comparison of Calcium Content between Blossom-End Rot and Healthy Fruits in Red Pepper (Capsicum annuum L.) Grown in Open Field

Abstract

The causes of blossom-end rot (BER) are still not understood clearly, although there was a lot of research on the development of BER over 100 years. This experiment was conducted to investigate the influence of Ca content of fruit on the incidence of BER in red pepper. BER affected fruits and healthy fruits had been harvested and the samples were divided into two parts, the upper and the lower, for chemical analysis to determine the content of mineral nutrients in the tissue. The content of nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P), potassium (K) and magnesium (Mg) was higher in the BER affected fruits and the difference of each nutrient content was revealed much larger in the lower part of the fruit but there were no significant differences in calcium content between the BER and the healthy fruits of red pepper, in this experiment. The results indicate that it is difficult to find a certain relation between the calcium content of the fruit and the occurrence of blossom-end rot.