Yield Gap Analysis of Sweet Pepper in Protected Cultivations Between Korea and The Netherlands

Abstract

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Dry Matter Production and Fruit Sink Strength Affect Fruit Set Ratio of Greenhouse Sweet Pepper

“…Rapid increases in the source-to-sink ratio throughout the experimental period (Fig. 4A) were closely related to the occurrence of flushing, as reported previously (Heuvelink et al, 2004;Kleijbeuker and Lee, 2019;Wubs et al, 2009aWubs et al, , 2009b. Several studies have already presented models of the source-to-sink ratio and have evaluated its effects on the fruit set (Kleijbeuker and Lee, 2019;Wubs et al, 2009bWubs et al, , 2011.…”

“…[5] and [6]) according to the method of Wubs (2010) and Wubs et al (2012). During some studies, fruit sink strength was calculated on a daily basis (Kleijbeuker and Lee, 2019;Wubs et al, 2009b). However, fruit growth is closely related to the daily mean temperature (de Koning, 1994).…”

“…Sweet pepper (Capsicum annuum) production increased considerably across more than 100 countries from 17 to 36 million tons during 1997 to 2017 (Tripodi and Kumar, 2019), and the global demand for sweet pepper is still increasing. Yields of greenhouse sweet pepper differ dramatically among countries (Kleijbeuker and Lee, 2019; Kwantitatieve Informatie voor de Glastuinbouw, 2017; Marcelis et al, 2019; Ministry of Agriculture Forestry and Fisheries of Japan, 2018), and yield fluctuation is inevitable for greenhouse sweet pepper.…”

“…Even when sweet pepper plants are grown under apparently optimal conditions, fluctuation of the fruit set occurs during production (Ma et al, 2011;Wien et al, 1989). Several studies (Heuvelink et al, 2004(Heuvelink et al, , 2016Kleijbeuker and Lee, 2019;Ma et al, 2011;Marcelis et al, 2004;Wubs, 2010;Wubs et al, 2009aWubs et al, , 2009b have revealed factors related to flushing by pointing out reasons why flushing occurs, namely, the interaction of source and sink strengths. Additionally, the number of seeds in fruit are positively correlated to the fruit size, which may affect the fruit sink strength (Rylski, 1973).…”

“…Flushing is mitigated in seedless fruit (Heuvelink and K€ orner, 2001;Heuvelink et al, 2016); however, parthenocarpic sweet pepper is not currently commercially available. Some studies of the effects of source and fruit sink strength on flushing have found that an increase in dry matter production increases fruit set; in contrast, other studies found that an increase in the fruit load on the stem has decreased the fruit set (Heuvelink et al, 2004;Kleijbeuker and Lee, 2019;Marcelis et al, 2004;Wubs et al, 2009a). However, the effects of the source and fruit sink strength on the fruit set have not yet been sufficiently validated quantitatively.…”