Influence of Time of Cowpea Introduction at the Establishment Phase of Pineapple on Performance of Pepper in a Pineapple-Pepper-Cowpea Intercropping System

Abstract

Cowpea was sown into pineapple-pepper intercrop at the establishment of pineapple in 2011 and 2012 to evaluate the effects of its time of sowing into pineapple-pepper intercrop on growth and yield components of pepper. In 2011, cowpeas were sown into pineapple-pepper intercropped plots at 3 week intervals in addition to the sole crop components of pepper, cowpea and pineapple. In 2012, the experiment was repeated with the inclusion of pineapple-pepper intercrop with no cowpea introduced. The experiments were laid out in a randomized complete block design with three replications. Early sowing of cowpea at the time of transplanting pepper and at 3 weeks after transplanting (WAP) pepper significantly reduced pepper leaf area by 97.5 and 80.1% respectively. The decline in the number of fruits per plant ranges from 90.4% with sowing of cowpea at transplanting of pepper to 35.6% sowing was delayed by 9 weeks in 2011 while decline in 2012 rages from 89.6 to 1.4%. Lower fruit weight decline was obtained with delayed introduction of cowpea with 29.1 and 14.5% decline when cowpea was sown 6 and 9 WAT respectively. It is recommended that pepper could be introduced into pineapple field at establishment phase. However, sowing of cowpea should be delayed up to six weeks after transplanting pepper in order to reduce competition and to enhance complementary use of resources by the component crops.