Combining ability and heterosis for agronomic traits in chili pepper

Abstract

The Capsicum breeding has been developed with emphasis in bell pepper (Capsicum annuum) and few studies are available in other species, especially C. baccatum, which has potential use not only as disease resistance source but also in obtaining new genotypes suitable for farmers' production. In the present work, the combining ability of ten C. baccatum hybrids, along with their five parentals, were tested considering 12 agronomic traits. The hybrids were produced from a complete diallel without reciprocals and assessed in greenhouse conditions, in Campos dos Goytacazes, Rio de Janeiro state, Brazil, during the period July to December 2009. The experimental design was a randomized block with three replications and the following agronomic traits evaluated: canopy diameter (CD), plant height (PH), days to fructification (DF), number of fruits per plant (NFP), mean fruit weight (FW), dry fruit matter weight (FDM), dry matter content (DM), fruit length (FL), fruit diameter (FD), pulp thickness (PT), total soluble solids (TSS) and yield per plant (PP). Significant differences were observed only for general combining ability (GCA) in regard to PH, FW, FDM, DM, PT and TSS, indicating that additive effects were involved on the control of these characters. For CD, DF, NFP, FL, FD and PP, there was significance not only for GCA but also for specific combining ability (SCA) indicating that non-additive and additive effects were important in genetic control of these traits. The hybrids UENF 1629 X UENF 1732, UENF 1616 X UENF 1732 and UENF 1624 X UENF 1639 were considered superior because they have favorable agronomic traits.