Impact of after-ripening in hot pepper seed development during post-anthesis physiological maturity

Seed development during physiological maturity is critical for ensuring its quality hot pepper. Though seed attain its highest quality at this stage but certain quality attributes attain the optimum level only after-ripening. Present study highlights the affect of after-ripening on seed quality in hot pepper. The seed harvested at peak physiological maturity behaved differently under after-ripening period. The two-year pooled data showed seed harvested at 65 days after anthesis (DAA) with 2 days of after-ripening (DAR) and at 55 DAA with 5 DAR produce the highest seed germination (87 & 90%), speed of germination (12.4 & 12.8), viability (87 & 85.5%), usable transplants (83.5 & 88%), seedling vigour index (1446 & 1556) and 1000-seed weight (7.2 & 6.6 g).