WATER USE, WATER POTENTIAL AND YIELD OF HABANERO PEPPER (Capsicum chinense Jacq.)

Water in plants represents 80 to 95 % of the mass in growing tissue where it plays esential functions. Low water availability in soils is the most common abiotic stress on plant growth which causes economic losses in agricultural systems. It is important then to estimate crop water requirements for improving crop productivity. In the present work, habanero pepper (Capsicum chinense Jacq.) was exposed to five levels of substrate water availability (60, 50, 40, 30 y 20 %). Leaf water potential, plant growth, biomass distribution, fruit yield, fruit size, harvest index and water productivity were evaluated. Results showed that plants exposed to 60 % of substrate water availability had the highest leaf water potential, with gains of 55 % in leaf area, 44 % in dry mass and 84% in fruit yield, compared to the 20 % water availability in the substrate. With 60 % of water availability plants produced 5.6 g of dry biomass per 1 L of irrigated water.