Advances in Research

Chilli or hot pepper belongs to the family Solanaceae having diploid chromosome number of 24. It is believed to have originated from South and Central America. The genus Capsicum includes twenty-seven species of which five species namely Capsicum annuum, C. frutescens, C. chinense, C. baccatum and C. pubescens are domesticated and twenty-two undomesticated species. Hense, a field investigation carried out at three environments viz., Balajigapade - Chikkaballapur (E₁), Department of Horticulture GKVK, UAS, Bengaluru (E₂) and K- block, Department of Genetics and Plant Breeding GKVK, UAS, Bengaluru (E₃) to assess the promising hybrids for yield stability pattern and its components during kharif 2014-15. Twenty-five test hybrids were evaluated with three standard checks (KBCH-1, Arka Meghana and Arka Haritha) in Randomized Complete Block Design and each treatment was replicated twice. Out of three environments studied E₃ was found to be the most suitable location for expression of many bio-physical characters. Significance of variance due to hybrid X environment (linear) was evident for green fruit yield. Variance due to environment (linear) was highly significant for all the traits across three environments indicating considerable differences among environments and their predominant effect in the expression of all the traits. The hybrid CMS10A X Byadgi-Kaddi exhibited higher mean with unit regression co-efficient and non-significant S²d_i different from zero indicating specifically adapted to unfavorable environment for average fruit weight and fruit width. The hybrids CMS10A X LCA-206 and CMS10A X Gouribidanur were found specifically adopted to favorable environments for green fruit yield, red fruit yield, average fruits/plant and average fruit length.