Introduction:

The production of berries of black pepper depends on its flowering system. The ideotype of black pepper vines should have more than 90% bisexual flowers with >95% self pollination, ≥ 12 cm of spike length and ≥ 70 berries per spike. The timing of flowering within and among individuals of black pepper plant is of fundamental biological importance because of its influence on total peppercorn or berry production. The importance of study the phenology in black pepper are to provide insight for research on flowering period, flower bloom timing and even such knowledge would be useful for production of pepper berries with high quality and quantity and also the management of native pollinators in farms. There are various methods that have been recorded to improve the pepper flowering and yield. Pruning one of the method that can enhanced formation of main shoots and to induce the development of lateral shoots comprise flower and fruits. In Philippines, pepper plant planted in 25% of shade had highest the number of spike, longer spike, highest fruit set per spike, bigger berry, highest piperine content and lowest spike abscission. The application of mixture chemical (NPK, 12:12:17+2) and organic fertilizer (EFB and seaweed) on Sarawak pepper enhance the number of spike per vine. In India, spraying of 1% of complex fertilizer 19:19:19 (N:P:K) three times at an interval of 3 weeks from flower primordial initiation to flowering period enhanced the yield. Spike shedding and berry drop are serious malady that affects the yield of pepper in India to an extent of 29.0 % and 40.0 %. However there no report on the method of the improvement of flowering synchronization in Sarawak pepper. Therefore, this study is aimed to apply the exogenous hormone which can synchronize the development of flower on the spike. To apply the exogenous phytohormones on Sarawak pepper, the detail information on the phenology and floral morphology will be initially gathered. Thus, the number of berries form and intact on the spike will be increased. The improvement of spike with full berries will be increased the black pepper production in Sarawak. This project was funded through Universiti Putra Malaysia grant GP-IPB/2018/9557604

Pictures:

Figure 1: Spraying exogenous hormones treatments on pepper vines

Output

1. Noorasmah, S., Nurul A’in, J. and Shiamala, D.R. 2019. Flower Composition of Black Pepper (Piper nigrum L.) Varieties in Bintulu, Sarawak. Transaction of Malaysian Society of Plant Physiology. 26: 46 – 51

2. Fidelia, J., Noorasmah, S. & Ramaiya, S.D. 2019. Flower composition in Sarawak Pepper Varieties (Piper nigrum L.)  Presented at the 7th International Symposium on Applied Engineering and Sciences (SAES2019), Faculty of Engineering. 11 -12th November 2019. Universiti Putra Malaysia.

3. Fidelia, J., Noorasmah, S. & Ramaiya, S.D. 2020. Status of pepper farming and flower composition of different pepper varieties in Sarawak. Pertanika Journal of Science and Technology (Special Issue: Symposium of Applied Engineering and Sciences 2019). Accepted.

For more further enquiries:

Dr. Noorasmah Binti Saupi
Senior Lecturer
Department of Crop Science
Faculty of Agricultural Science and Forestry
Tel: +6086 855394
Email: noorasmah@upm.edu.my

Updated:: 01/09/2020 [lanz]