Heterosis and Inbreeding Depression for Green Fruit Yield and its Components in Chilli (Capsicum annuum Var. Longum (D.C.) Sendt.)

Magnitude of heterotic effects and inbreeding depression for green fruit yield, number of fruits per plant, average fruit length and plant width was high, suggesting presence of non-additive gene effect. For days to flowering as well as fruit ripening, number of primary branches and secondary branches the estimates of heterotic effects and inbreeding depression were moderate revealing existence of additive and/or partial dominance gene effects. For rest of the characters magnitudes of heterotic effects were low. The estimate of heterotic effects of crosses ACS 98-9 x SG 5, ACS 97-1 x Pb. Guchhadar, SG 5 x Pb. Guchhadar and Jwala x DPS 120 were high and positive for green fruit yield and number of fruits per plant, where as those were high and negative for days to flowering and fruit ripening. These hybrids also depicted significant and high estimates of inbreeding depression for above traits. Therefore, heterosis breeding as well as population improvement through recurrent selection and diallel selective mating is suggested.