Department of Vegetable Crops, Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana-141004, India.
A set of thirty three genotypes of hot pepper collected from Punjab, Rajasthan and AVRDC (Asian Vegetable Research and Development Centre) Taiwan were evaluated for various horticultural characters. The material was sown in a complete randomized block design with three replication during 2002–03. The observation were recorded on plant height, fruit length, number of seeds per fruit, number of fruit per plant, fruit yield per plant, fruit weight, number of branches per plant, days to first fruit harvest, chlorophyll content, capsaicin content, ascorbic acid content, colouring matter, resistance to fruit rot, virus complex. Analysis of variance indicated significant genotypic differences for all the characters which showed presence of wide variability in the material. Genotypes Punjab Lal, S-99-3, S-5, Punjab Guchhedar, S-12-1 and S-103 provided higher yield per plant (563.75g, 555.57g, 553.10g, 540.23g, 521.33g, 516.13g) respectively. Punjab Lal and S-12-1 were resistant to fruit rot, virus complex while Punjab Guchhedar, S-99-3 and S-103 were resistant to fruit rot and moderately resistant to virus complex. Genotypes S-2530, S-2, S-5, S-99-3 and S-30 were significantly superior to check varieties for colouring matter. Similarly, S-99-3 and S-5 were also identified for high capsaicin coupled with high yield and could be utilized for the genetic improvement of hot pepper for yield and quality characters.
Hot pepper, Chilli, Yield, Quality
