Genetic cataloguing of hot chilli (Capsicum chinese Jacq.)

Abstract

The research project "Genetic cataloguing of hot chilli (Capsicum chinense Jacq.)" was carried out in the vegetable research plot of the Department of Olericulture, College of Agriculture, Vellayani, during September 2000 to May 2001. The objective of the study was to catalogue the accessions based on the IBPGR descriptor for Capsicum and to estimate the genetic parameters for different traits in the germplasm for identifying superior lines based on yield, quality and pest and disease resistance. Thirty two accessions of C. ch inense collected from various sources upon cataloguing pointed out wide variation for several morphological characters. Analysis of variance revealed significant difference among the accessrons for all the characters studied namely, plant height, primary branches per plant, plant spread, days to first flowering, pollen viability, days to maturity, fruits per plant, fruit length, pedicel length, fruit girth, fruit weight, seeds per fruit, 1000-seed weight, yield per plant, yield per harvest, number of harvests, capsaicin, oleoresin, ascorbic acid and mosaic incidence. Among the accessions, CC 23 recorded the maximum yield (1649.72 g) as well as fruits per plant (637.44). CC 13 was the earliest to flower (54.67 days) with the maximum number of harvests (6.94) and least vulnerability index for mosaic (40.63). Fruits per plant recorded the maximum phenotypic

and genotypic coefficients of variation, followed by yield per plant and fruit weight. High heritability coupled with high genetic advance was observed for fruits per plant, yield per plant, fruit weight, fruit girth and fruit length. Correlation studies and path coefficient analysis revealed that fruits per plant is the primary yield component as evidenced from its high positive correlation as well as high direct and indirect effects on yield. In the discriminant function analysis, CC 23 (Nemom, Thiruvananthapuram) ranked first, followed by CC 13 (Vithura, Thiruvananthapuram) and CC 7 (Vithura, Thiruvananthapuram). Based on the analysis for genetic divergence, the 32 accessions were grouped into six clusters, with the maximum intercluster distance observed between clusters I and VI. On the basis of the present study, the accessions CC 23, CC 13 and CC 7 were found to be promising with regard to yield, quality and mosaic resistance and the same may be utilized for further improvement.