This work aimed to estimate genetic parameters related to the fruits production in a chilli pepper diallel (Capsicum baccatum var. pendulum). Five chilli pepper genitors were evaluated (UENF 1616, UENF 1624, UENF 1629, UENF 1639 and UENF 1732) and its respective hybrids F1, from a complete diallel without reciprocals. The experiment was carried out in a greenhouse covered with plastic film located in area from the consortium UENF/PESAGRO-RIO, Campos dos Goytacazes, RJ, from July/2009 to December/2009, in a randomized block design with three repetitions and nine plants by plot. The following agronomic traits were evaluated: canopy diameter (CD); plant height (PH); days for fruiting (DF); number of fruits by plant (NFP); fruit average-weight (FAW); fruit dry mass (FDM); dry matter (DM); fruit length (FL); fruit diameter (FD); fruit wall thickness (PT); total soluble solids (TSS); and yield per plant (PROD). Only the FAW, FDM and PROD had absence of significance concerning the three tests of sufficiency for the additive dominant model, indicating that there is homogeneity among the variances and co-variances and, consequently, lack of epistasis in the control of character. For the FAW and FDM traits, the additive genetic effects were the most important ones. Nevertheless, in the PROD the dominance effect was the most important. It was verified a partial dominance for FAW and FDM, and an over-dominance for PROD. The genitors UENF 1616 and UENF 1629 were the ones which had larger concentrations of favorable alleles for the three characteristics under study.
Chilli pepper; Plant breeding; Plant hybridization; Genetic control
