Evaluation of genotypes of bell pepper (Capsicum annuum L.) in cold desert zone of Tabo valley of Spiti district of Himachal Pradesh

Abstract

: Identification and development of new varieties of bell pepper adapted to Spiti valley of Himachal Pradesh is very important because farmers are cultivating off-season pea on commercial scale but are ignorant about the production technology of bell pepper or Shimla Mirch (Capsicum annuum L.) cultivation under low polytunnels. The present investigations were undertaken at Regional Horticultural Research Sub-station, Tabo, Spiti, Himachal Pradesh which is located at an elevation of 3280 m (10760 ft.) above mean sea level. Highest fruit yield per plant was observed in SP-701 (1350 g) which showed statistical superiority among all the genotypes understudy. Hence, SP-701 can be recommended to the farmers for getting high yield in Tabo valley. High heritability coupled with high genetic gain were observed for average fruit weight, fruit yield /plant and fruit length which indicated the presence of additive gene action and thus, offers more scope for reliable and effective selection. It can be concluded from the study of the correlation that fruit yield per plant can be improved by improving the number of fruits per plant, average fruit weight, plant height and fruit breadth in bell pepper.

Genetic Assessment for Fruit Yield and Horticultural Traits in Bacterial Wilt Tolerant Genotypes of Bell Pepper (Capsicum annuum L. var. grossum Sendt.)

“…Such moderate estimates have also been reported by earlier research workers for plant height (Ahmed et al, 2012;Thakur et al, 2017;Aditika et al, 2018and Thakur et al, 2019, harvest duration, lobes per fruit and pericarp thickness (Sood et al, 2011 andThakur et al, 2019), fruit length (Sood et al, 2011;Ahmed et al, 2012;Kumari, 2013;Pandey et al, 2013;Rana et al, 2015;Thakur et al, 2017 andSingh et al, 2018), average fruit weight (Sharma 2014;Rana et al, 2015;Aditika et al, 2018 andSingh et al, 2018), ascorbic acid (Afroza et al, 2013a) and TSS (Sharma et al, 2017 andThakur et al, 2019). In contrary of this, moderate PCV and low GCV for plant height and low PCV and GCV for harvest duration and pericarp thickness by Sharma et al, (2017), high PCV and GCV for ascorbic acid by Sharma et al, (2010), low PCV and GCV for pericarp thickness by Thakur et al, (2017), high PCV and GCV for pericarp thickness by Singh et al, (2018), high PCV and GCV for average fruit weight by Kumari ( 2013) and Thakur et al, (2017), moderate PCV and low GCV for average fruit weight by Thakur et al, (2019) and low PCV and GCV for ascorbic acid content by Singh et al, (2018).…”

“…In contrary, low genetic advance for plant height and pericarp thickness was reported by (Thakur et al, 2017). Low estimates of genetic advance have been reported by Kumari (2013); Kumar et al, (2015a); Thakur et al, (2017) and Thakur et al, (2019) for fruit width. High estimates of genetic advance have also been reported by Singh et al, (2018) for pericarp thickness.…”

“…This indicated highly heritable and comparatively stable nature of the characters and thus, the selection based on phenotypic performance would be quite effective in the improvement of these traits. Afroza et al, (2013b), Pandey et al, (2013), Rana et al, (2015), Sharma et al, (2017), Thakur et al, (2017), Aditika et al, (2018), Singh et al, (2018), Esho (2018), Sharma et al, (2019) and Thakur et al, (2019) also found high PCV than the corresponding GCV in their respective studies.…”

“…The significant differences among the genotypes studied suggest that variability can be further utilized in bell pepper improvement programme. Earlier workers Ahmed et al, (2012), Afroza et al, (2013b), Kumari ( 2013), Pandey et al, (2013), Cebula et al, (2015), Rana et al, (2015), Sharma et al, (2017), Thakur et al, (2017), Aditika et al, (2018), Esho (2018), Singh et al, (2018) and Thakur et al, (2019) have also reported variability in their respective genetic material of bell pepper. The extent of variability present in the bell pepper genotypes was measured in terms of mean, range, phenotypic (PCV) and genotypic (GCV) coefficients of variation, heritability (broad sense), genetic advance as per cent of mean for all the traits are presented in Tables 4 and 5.…”

“…Genetic advance as per cent of mean ( (Sood et al, 2011;Aditika et al, 2018 andSharma et al, 2019), fruit width (Rana et al, 2015 andSharma et al, 2019), plant height (Thakur et al, 2017;Sharma et al, 2019 andThakur et al, 2019), primary branches per plant (Sharma et al, 2017;Singh et al, 2018 andThakur et al, 2019), lobes per fruit (Sood et al, 2011;Aditika et al, 2018;Sharma et al, 2019 andThakur et al, 2019), average fruit weight (Rana et al, 2015;Singh et al, 2018 andThakur et al, 2019) and for harvest duration, days to first picking and days to 50 per cent flowering by (Thakur et al, 2019). In contrary, low genetic advance for plant height and pericarp thickness was reported by (Thakur et al, 2017). Low estimates of genetic advance have been reported by Kumari (2013); Kumar et al, (2015a); Thakur et al, (2017) and Thakur et al, (2019) for fruit width.…”