Selection and heritability of F2 sweet pepper offspring from the cross Amfora x Piquillo de Lodosa

Peppers (Capsicum annuum L.) have a very diverse use in Serbia. Preparing ajvar (pepper spread) is the most common way in Serbia to preserve pepper for wintertime. Besides larger fruits, high total soluble solids in red pepper fruits are very important for better ajvar. The goal of our breeding program is to develop new pepper cultivars with high fruit weight and high total soluble solids. For this purpose, we crossed Amfora (kapia variety from the Institute of Field and Vegetable Crops, Novi Sad, Serbia) and Piquillo de Lodosa (a small conical variety from Spain) in 2014. From this crossing, 180 F2 plants were transplanted into open field in 2016. The fruits were evaluated for seven quantitative traits: weight, length, diameter, index, locule number, pericarp thickness and total soluble solids (Brix). The principal component analysis was used to identify the most significant traits. The mean values were compared with the Dunnett test. Relationships between traits were calculated by Pearson correlation coefficients. Fruits from F2 plants were ranged between parents mainly. Fruit weight was positively correlated with fruit length, fruit diameter and pericarp thickness, but negatively with total soluble solids. Low heritability for total soluble solids and a negative correlation between total soluble solids and fruit weight makes it difficult to improve both important traits in one variety. The task in the future breeding process is to find crossing combination in pepper which will harmonize these two important fruit traits.