Foliar fertilizers improved fruit set and yield of cayenne pepper (Capsicum frutescens L.) grown off-season

The fruit set and yield of cayenne pepper grown during the rainy season (off-season) is relatively lower than during the dry season. This study aimed to assess the effectiveness of some foliar fertilizers in improving the fruit set and yield of cayenne pepper grown off-season on dryland. An experiment was conducted during the rainy season of 2021/2022 on a dryland area of Gumantar, North Lombok, Indonesia. Four foliar fertilizers and one control were tested on two varieties of cayenne pepper. The foliar fertilizers were: bio-organic (Pomi), silicate and boron (X-ZO), micronutrients (Meroke Fitoflex), and a mix of macro and micronutrients (Bayfolan). The two varieties were: hybrid (Dewata 43) and open-pollinated (Sret). The treatments were arranged in a factorial randomized block design with three replications. After five harvests, the results showed no interaction between foliar fertilizer and variety in affecting fruit set and yield. The foliar fertilizers improved the fruit set and yield of cayenne pepper. The most significant improvement was the bio-organic fertilizer with 10.6% and 42.5 % for fruit set and fruit weight per plot, respectively, compared to the control treatment. The hybrid variety yielded 822.5 g plant−1, higher than the open-pollinated ones with 632.3 g plant−1.