Evaluation of Hybrids and Parents of Chilli (Capsicum annuum L.) for Yield and Resistance to Chilli Leaf Curl Virus

Abstract

Chilli (Capsicum annuum L.) is the most important vegetable and spice crops that belonging to family Solanaceae. Leaf curl virus disease is a most destructive threat to chilli production which adversely affect yield. Twenty four F1 hybrids were developed by crossing eleven diverse parents in line x tester mating design and were screened for yield, yield related traits and for resistance to leaf curl virus under natural epiphytotic condition and artificial inoculation using viruliferous white flies at College of horticulture, Bagalkot (University of horticulture science, Bagalkot) during 2021-2023. The analysis of variance indicated the presence of significant variation among the chilli hybrids and parents for the characters observed and reaction to disease. Based on the per se performance, the hybrid Byadgi Dabbi x IC284628 recorded the highest individual fruit weight, hybrid Byadgi Kaddi x Punjab Sindhuri observed highest number of fruits per plant and hybrid Byadgi Kaddi x Punjab Lal recorded highest green fruit yield per plant among all the hybrids. The hybrids Byadgi Kaddi x Punjab Surkh, Byadgi Dabbi x Punjab Surkh, Byadgi Dabbi x Punjab Sindhuri and Byadgi Kaddi x Punjab Sindhuri were found to have higher tolerance to chilli leaf curl disease.