Phenotyping and selecting parents for ornamental purposes in peppers accessions

Resumo

The market for ornamental peppers in Brazil is arising and breeding new cultivars adapted to Brazilian environmental conditions is necessary. This work describes the characterization of 22 pepper accessions (Capsicum spp.) considering traits related to ornamental purposes, analyzes the genetic dissimilarity among the accessions and indicates promising genotypes that can be used as parental in crosses. Thirteen qualitative and eight quantitative descriptors were studied. The experiment was carried out in greenhouse using a randomized block design with three replications and four plants per plot. UPGMA clustered the accessions in 11 groups for qualitative and eight groups for quantitative descriptors. Fruit length was the most important trait to discriminate the accessions while changing color during fruit ripening was less important in accessions discrimination. However, this descriptor cannot be discarded during phenotyping characterization because it is a very important trait aiming ornamental breeding. Desirable traits for ornamental use as small height, intermediate growth habit, three to five stages for fruit ripening maturation, early flower and fruit set were identified in five accessions (UENF 1623, UENF 1626, UENF 1627, UENF 1632, UENF 1750). Other seven accessions (UENF 1615, UENF 1641, UENF 1717, UENF 1738, UENF 1741, UENF 1790, UENF 1799) had also ornamental interest for garden growing because of the plant height, along with fruit color, size and shape. Accessions (UENF 1623, UENF 1626, UENF 1627, UENF 1632, UENF 1750) can be recommended as parental for pepper ornamental breeding, based on genetic divergence and suitable agronomic traits.