Variation in fruit characters among some “Tatase” chilli pepper (Capsicum Spp L.) Accessions

Metrical fruit traits were investigated to determine the most useful for distinguishing among Tatase chili pepper groups constituted on the basis of visualy descriptive forms. Eight accessions representing the various forms of tatase in the germplasm of the National Horticultural Research Institute Ibadan were used for the study. Measurement were carried out on the fruits of these accessions. Differences in fruit length, fruit width, fruit weight, flesh thickness, number of loculi and fruit weight-seed weight ratio were significant at P < 0.01. Coeficient of variation (Cv) was less than 20% for fruit length, fruit width and length-width ratio. Differences in number of seeds/fruit. Seed weight per fruit and weight-seed weight ratio were significant at P<0.05 but CVs were 25.5%, 32.7% and 25.9%, respectively. The eight accessions separated from another in respect of at least one character. However, no single character was able to separate all the accessions. A combination of length-width ration, fruit length and fruit weight separated all possible comparisons. Therefore these traits would be useful in distinguishing on fruit basis, the ‘Tatase’ Chilli pepper from Nigeria.