Genetic Variability Studies in Chilli (Capsicum annuum L.)

Genetic variability, heritability, genetic advance and genetic advance as a per cent over mean for thirty two characters were assessed by field evaluation of fifty chilli accessions at College of Horticulture, Bagalkot (Karnataka) during 2010-11. High degree of variation was observed for all characters. The difference between phenotypic co-efficient of variation and genotypic co-efficient of variation were found to be narrow for most of the traits. The high estimates of heritability was found for plant spread (N-S) at 60 days (64.27%) and 120 day (65.47%) and (E-W) at 60 days (60.56%), number of fruits per plant at first picking (98.20%), early yield (94.67%), late yield (95.62%) and total yield (91.37%). The fruit characters like fruit width (96.22%), stalk length (81.04%) and ten fruit weight (96.44%), chlorophyll-a (95.45%), chlorophyll-b (97.52%), total chlorophyll (97.87%) and ascorbic acid (98.30%), fresh red chilli yield (95.18%) and dry red chilli yield (93.71%), hundred seed weight (70.67%) and number of seeds per fruit (94.67%) had also recorded high heritability.