The objective of this study was to determine some key components of a model for bell pepper growth and
yield under non-limiting water and nutrient conditions using data from field trials conducted in
Southern Portugal. DM partitioning, at least before fruiting, and specific area indices for leaves, stems
and fruits were conservative in relation to normalized thermal time. The interception model had a good
performance. It was based on the exponential extinction of radiation on the area covered by the plants,
the ellipsoidal leaf-angle distributionmodel (X-parameter 2.48 and 2.89), and absorptivities of the leaves
for PAR and NIR, 0.8 and 0.2, respectively. Radiation-use efficiency (RUE) was determined and presented
in four different forms. RUE did not change substantially throughout the growing season. RUE of irrigated
pepper crops grown in our experiments was around 1.6 g MJ 1 of intercepted PAR. The models and
parameter values presented in this study may be useful to simulate the development and growth of fieldgrown
pepper cro
