Accession × Treatment Interaction, Variability and Correlation Studies of Pepper (<i>Capsicum</i> spp.) under the Influence of Arbuscular Mycorrhiza Fungus (<i>Glomus clarum</i>) and Cow Dung

The field experiment was conducted in the Department of Botany, University of Ibadan, Nigeria between September to December 2012. Four accessions of pepper (Capsicum spp.), obtained from Moor plantation in Ibadan and LUTH (Lagos University Teaching Hospital) vegetable garden, Idi-Araba Lagos were evaluated to investigate the morpho-agronomic variability and interaction of accession × treatment × days after transplant in treatment combinations of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungus (Glomus clarum) and cowdung. The experiment was a 4 × 4 factorial arrangement laid out in a randomized complete block design with three replications. The combined analysis of variance showed significant accession, treatment, days after transplant, and accession × treatment interactive effect for most of the growth characters at P 0.01 and P 0.05. The result also showed significant difference in yield related traits of fruits for pepper accessions. The number of leaves per plant was significant and positively associated with plant height (r = 0.516; P 0.05), and highly significant and positively correlated with the number of branches (r = 0.836; P 0.01), but negative and non-significantly related with stem girth. Glomus clarum treated plants responded significantly with higher growth and yield. It suggested that G. clarum treatment had higher potential in influencing crop yield compared to cowdung and untreated plants. This study further explored the relationship between G.