Screening of Bird's Eye Chilli (Capsicum frutescens L.) for the Growth, Floral, Yield and Quality Traits in the Coastal Region of Tamil Nadu, India

Abstract

The present study aims to observe the performance of ten landraces of bird’s eye chilli for various traits and to screen the best performing landrace for utilization in further breeding program. This investigation was carried out at the Department of Horticulture, Faculty of Agriculture, Annamalai University, Annamalai Nagar, during the year 2022- 2023. The experiment was conducted in Completely Randomized Design (CRD) with three replications and ten different landraces of bird’s eye chilli. Significant variation was observed among the landraces for all the characters. Among the ten landraces, LR-1 (Green bird’s eye chilli) recorded the highest values for the growth characters viz., germination percentage (89.19%), seedling vigour index (993.57), plant height (63.02 cm) and number of primary branches plant-1 (16.01). The minimum number of days taken for 50% flowering (88.84 days) was registered in LR- 10 (Suryamukhi). For the floral characters, the peak period of anthesis and anther dehiscence was recorded between time periods 6:00 to 7:00 a.m. and 9:00 to 10:00 a.m., respectively. However, the maximum pollen viability (83.59%) was observed in the landrace LR-6 (Purple bird’s eye chilli). The maximum value for the yield characters viz., number of flowers plant-1 (74.86), number of fruits plant-1 (53.64) and fruit set percentage (71.65%) was recorded in the landrace LR-1 (Green bird’s eye chilli). The landrace LR-10 (Suryamukhi) recorded the maximum fruit length (5.54 cm), fruit girth (2.69 cm), average fruit weight (3.75 g) and number of seeds fruit-1 (23.77). Regarding the quality characters, the maximum ascorbic acid (141.08 mg 100 g-1) and capsaicin content (1.43%) were recorded in the landrace LR-8 (Thai bird’s eye chilli). Based on the overall performance of the landraces under study, the landraces LR-1 and LR-10 were found to be best with respect to yield indicating that these landraces can be considered for further improvement.