Estimation of fruit-length heritability as a tool to develop a new pepper cultivar.

GALMARINI, C.R.; LOPEZ FRASCA, A.

JOURNAL OF GENETICS & BREEDING

Istituto Sperimentale per la Cerealicoltura

Lugar: Roma; Año: 1998 p. 17 - 20

0394-9257

The heritability of the fruit length was studied within the pepper cultivar FYUCO INTA during two growth cycles, using descriptive statistics. This cultivar  has resistance to Phytophthora capsici Leonian.   The resulting heritability of the fruit length  was 0.77 and 0.59 in the first and second cycle respectively. According to these results a genealogical selection program was started. After 4 years, 5 lines were selected and compared with the original plant population. It was found that the fruit average length in the selected lines was 12.5 cm while in FYUCO INTA was 9.3 cm. There were no differences in wall thickness of the fruit or in yield in the selected lines compared with the original population.  The resistance to Phytophthora capsici Leo. was verified in greenhouse and also in field conditions.   One of the selected strains was chosen to develop a new cultivar, LUNGO INTA, which is a bell-pepper type that  has a cycle of 120 days from transplant to harvest. It has a yield of 35,000 kg per hectare.