Phenotypic Performance of Pakisan Bird’s Eye Chili Landrace(Capsicum frutescens L.) under Various Application Rates ofSoil Amendments

Abstract

Pakisan bird’s eye chili is a local landrace whose phenotypic performance requires improvement, particularly through the application of soil amendments such as biochar and animal manure. This study aimed to evaluate the phenotypic performance of the Pakisan landrace under various application rates of soil amendments. The experiment was conducted at the Experimental Field of the Faculty of Agriculture and Engineering, Panji Sakti University, Singaraja. The experiment was designed by Randomized Complete Block Design (RCBD) with two factors. The first factor was the application rate of cashew nut shell biochar (CNSB) at four levels (0, 10, 20, and 30 t ha^-1). The second factor was the application rate of goat manure compost (GMC) at three levels (0, 10, and 20 t ha^-1). Plant phenotypic parameters, including plant height, leaf number, leaf area, root length, root fresh weight, shoot fresh weight, total plant fresh weight, root dry weight, shoot dry weight, total plant dry weight, and fruit yield per plant, were observed. The results indicated that increasing the CNSB rate up to 30 t ha^-1 consistently enhanced the fruit yield per plant. Each additional 10 t ha^-1 of CNSB increased the fruit yield by 6.71 g plant ^-1. Similarly, increasing the GMC rate up to 20 t ha¹ led to a higher fruit yield, with each 10 t ha^-1 increment increasing the yield by 7.58 g plant^-1. The interaction between CNSB and GMC application rates significantly influenced fruit yield per plant (P < 0.01). The combination of 30 t ha^-1 CNSB and 10 t ha^-1 GMC produced the highest fruit yield per plant at the first harvest, reaching 84.00 g plant^-1 . Consequently, the application of cashew nut shell biochar and goat manure compost, both individually and in combination, effectively enhances the phenotypic performance of the Pakisan bird’s eye chili landrace.