Division of Horticulture and Forestry, Central Agricultural Research Institute, Port Blair 744 101
The physical characters of different cultivars of chilli varied significantly because of difference in their genetic make-up. During post-harvest storage of chilli packed in LDPE and kept at ambient temperature, physiological loss in weight of 70.03% was recorded in LCA 206 after 8 days, whereas minimum loss (15.95%) was observed in LCA 334. After storage of 60 days in polyethylene at low temperature, highest weight loss (66.19%) and lowest (34.24%) were recorded in Suva and BC 14-2 respectively. In 19 varieties of chilli treated with 20ppm benlate and stored at ambient temperature showed a maximum and minimum loss of 77.62 and 43.31% in PP 977268 and Phule Sai, respectively after 15 days. At low temperature chilli kept in LDPE, the highest loss (49.18%) and lowest (2.43%) were recorded in PP 977623 and PP 977268 respectively.
