COMPARATIVE STUDY ON THE PERFORMANCE OF SOME EXOTIC CHILLI PEPPER ACCESSIONS IN IBADAN, SOUTHWESTERN NIGERIA

Five exotic pepper accessions, obtained from AVRDC – The World Vegetable Center (PP9955-15, PP0337-7562, PP0201-7532, PP9950-5197, PP9952-173), were evaluated for their performance against two check cultivars ‘NHV1B’ and ‘NHV1F’ at the National Horticultural Research Institute, Ibadan, Nigeria.
Pepper cultivar ‘NHV1B’ (a local check), and accession PP0201-7532 were earliest to flower in
59 days.
Plant height at flowering was not significantly different (p<0.05) among the accessions.
The pepper accessions were significantly different (p<0.01) in fruit length, fruit width, average fruit weight, and 100 seed weight with coefficient of variation (cv) of 1.49 to 13.79%. Fruit length (14.81 cm) and fruit width (2.8 cm) was the maximum in accession PP9955-15 while all other cultivars were statistically at par with the check varieties.
Cultivar ‘NHV1F’ out yielded all the exotic cultivars for average number of fruits per plant.
Although the accessions did not differ significantly in their yield potential, PP9955-15 had the highest average fruit weight (13.39 g) and fruit yield (16.23 t/ha) that is 11.2% higher than the local check.
The least number of fruits (23.77) per plant and maximum number of seeds per pod (48), highest 100 seed weight was also recorded in PP9955-15 as regards seed production.

II All Africa Horticulture Congress

F.M. Tairu, A.O. Olufolaji, M.A. Abdul Rafiu, C. Kouame

Capsicum frutescens, growth, fruit yield, seed yield, coefficient of variation