SCREENING OF CHILLI (Capsicum spp.) GENOTYPES BASED ON AGROMORPHOGENIC AND PHYSIOLOGICAL TRAITS AGAINST DROUGHT

Abstract

A pot experiment was conducted in the net house of the Department of Genetics and Plant Breeding, Sher-e-Bangla Agricultural University, Dhaka1207,

during the months of November 2018 to March 2019 to observe the performances of ten chilli genotypes under three different drought treatments. Two factorial experiment included 10 chilli genotypes viz. G 1

(Surjamukhi IMP), G 3 (HP 1029), G 4 xiv

(SRCO 1), G 5 (SRCO 2), G 6 (SRCO 9), G 7 (SRCO 13), G 8 (CO 613), G 9 (SRCO 5) and G 10 (Hot morich of Bogura) and three drought treatments viz. T 1 (Control), T 2 (20 days withholding of water) and T 3 (40 days withholding of water) were outlined in Completely Randomized Design (CRD) with three replications. The results showed that both, the different chilli genotypes and drought treatments had significant influence independently and also in interaction on agromorphogenic, physiological and nutritional traits of chilli plant. Among interactions of chilli genotypes and drought treatments, the tallest plant (117.33 cm) was observed in G 10 T 1 whereas the shortest plant (26.00 cm) was found from G 7 , maximum number of fruits (93.67 /plant) were obtained from G 10 T 1 whereas minimum number of fruits (0.00 /plant) was found in G 8 T 3 , Maximum yield (0.12 kg/plant) was obtained from while minimum yield (0.00 kg/plant) from G 8 , Maximum proline content in chilli (684.94 µg/g) was obtained from G 2 while minimum (227.19 µg/g) from G 2 T 1 and the highest % Brix content as obtained from G 3 T 2 (3.63 %), G 3 T 3 (3.63 %) and G 5 T 3 (3.63 %) whereas the lowest % Brix was found in G 4 T 1 (1.00 %) and G 1 T 1 (1.00 %). Almost all traits responded negatively as the drought level increased except days to first flowering, maturity, proline and brix (%). Considering the yield and yield contributing characters, genotype G 1 , G 2 and G 8 showed tolerance at moderate drought stress and G 1 and G 2 showed tolerance at prolonged and severe drought stress. Regarding nutritional traits, G 4 showed tolerance at moderate drought stress period and G 1 and G 4 showed tolerance at prolonged and severe drought stress. These genotypes could be recommended to the farmers for cultivation in the drought prone areas of Bangladesh and also could be used in future hybridization or other gene transfer programs.