Articles
BREEDING AND AGROTECHNICS OF EARLY SIMULTANEOUSLY RIPENING PEPPER VARIETIES
They should possess valuable economic, chemical and technological characters, resistance to diseases and they have to be suitable for mechanized cultivation and harvesting.
"Buketen" pepper variety for grinding has been developed by remote hybridization between forms of Capsicum fasciculatum and Capsicumannuum.
The hybrid material was subjected to provocative infection on a background inoculated with Verticilium.
Selection was performed for morphological, biochemical and technological characters, earliness and resistance to diseases.
"Buketen" variety is superior to "Gorogled-6", which is the most widely distributed variety for grinding in Bulgaria, in the following features:
- it ripens simultaneously and 15–20 days earlier,
- is suitable for mechanized once-over harvest,
- exhibits higher field resistance to Verticilium (table 1)
Moreover, "Buketen" has very good chemical and technological qualities and it excels "Gorogled-6" by 15% at pigment substances content (table 2).
This new variety is of compact bunchy habit, determinate in growth (19–20 cm) and apically terminates with flowers and consequently with fruit.
Its compact bunchy habit and smaller amount of overground parts compared to the established unsimultaneously ripening varieties allow complete mechanization of its cultivation and once-over harvest.
Our data show that in large scale farming predicted yield of 2100–2500 kg/ha dry matter can be obtained when special cultural practices are employed in the growth of "Buketen" variety.
Tests with different nutritious areas have been conducted. "Gorogled-6" was planted at two spacings, i.e. with rows 60 cm apart and 15 cm between plants within the row with 1 plant per hill, and 60/25 cm spacing with 2 plants per hill. "Buketen" plants were spaced 60/10 cm, 60/12 cm and 60/15 cm with 1 plant per hill; 60/15 cm, 60/20 cm and 60/25 cm with 2 plants per hill.
The results indicated that "Buketen" performed well at low planting rates since highest dry matter yield per hectare was obtained from the variant with smallest nutritious area (60/15 cm with 2 plants per hill) and it thus overyielded the control ("Gorogled-6" spaced at 60/15 cm with 1 plant per hill) by 18.5%.
During the 1971–1972 period two experiments were carried out to study the influence of irrigation regime and technique upon the yield of "Buketen".