Studies on interspecific hybrids of five species of Capsicum with special reference to its qualitative and quantitative characters

Abstract

Investigations on the inheritance of quantitative and qualitative characters and hetrosis among five species of Capsicum were carried out in the present study. Though crosses were made in all combinations, there was fruit setting in only ten crosses. Of these 2 crosses produced no viable seeds and in another cross, the seedlings did not survive. C anmtum as female parent failed to cross with any other species In the cross CF x CP, the embryo started normal development but collapsed in the early stage The F, hybrids exhibited heterosis for several economically desirable characters. All the hybrids showed a conspicuous reduction in the number and germination capacity of I1 ' , and I , seeds. Among the seven hybrids studied, the best economic combinations were Capsicum frutescens X C. baccatum and C. pendulum X C. microcarpum. These results indicate the possiblity of selecting desirable typss combining the economic attributes of both the parents from the segregating generations and by back crossing.