2003 Green Pepper Cultivar Evaluation

Bob Precheur, Rick Callendar, Ted Smith, Dennis Ash and Herminio Perez

Dept. of Horticulture and Crop Science, OSU Columbus, Manager and Staff,

Muck Crops Branch. Celeryville, OH

In Cooperation with Wiers Farms Inc., Willard, OH

Summary of Results:

Seven varieties were transplanted on June 2 at a grower’s location in Celeryville, OH. The experiment was conducted as a randomized complete block design with 4 replications. Plots were double rows, 25 feet long. Eight plants from the middle were harvested to determine yield and quality.

Despite cool, wet weather, early yield, defined as the first harvest, was five days earlier than in 2002 and similar to 2001. Even with large amounts of blossom drop, Aristotle produced 323 boxes per acre of extra large plus large fruit (see Table 1.) and exceeded 2002 by about 100 boxes. Other varieties with good early yield were: Revolution and Paladin which also performed well in previous years. The top 3 varieties for total yield in the large size categories were: Aristotle, Crusader and Paladin. Crusader has not been in the trials since 2001 where it performed in the middle of the pack.

Total marketable yield is presented in Table 2. This includes all size categories from extra large to select or all sizes that can be put in a box and sold. However, profits are made with the amount of fruit produced in the extra large and large size categories. For early yield, those varieties which had nearly 80 percent of higher of their fruit in the large size categories were: Aristotle, Revolution, Olympus, and Colossal. For total yield, 3 harvests, Aristotle had the highest percentage (73%) of its fruit in extra large and large sizes. Most other varieties were in the mid sixties in terms of percent large sizes marketable. This is the first year where all varieties tested were above 50% large size.

Table 1. Yield of Extra Large¹ plus Large Fruit, (First Harvest and Total)

Early (First Harvest)		Total (3 Harvests)
Cultivar	Boxes/A	Cultivar	Boxes/A
Aristotle	323	Aristotle	972
Revolution (HMX 1660)	256	Crusader VP	858
Olympus	200	Paladin	841
Paladin	159	Karma	800
Karma F1	158	Colossal	783
Crusader VP	143	Olympus	766
Colossal	102	Revolution (HMX 1660)	764
LSD 0.05	125		234

1. The extra large category includes Jumbo and extra large fruit sizes.

Table 2. Marketable Yield (Extra Large + Large + Medium + Small + Select)

Early (First Harvest)		% Marketable L	Total (3 Harvests)		% Marketable		% Marketable L
Cultivar	Boxes/A	(Extra L + Large)	Cultivar	Boxes/A	(XL+L+M+S)		(Extra L + Large)
Aristotle	387	85	Aristotle	1256	92		73
Revolution (HMX 1660)	316	80	Crusader	1235	92		63
Olympus	243	79	Olympus	1166	94		59
Paladin	235	63	Karma	1164	87		62
Crusader	234	55	Paladin	1160	93		65
Karma F1	212	69	Revolution	1079	86		63
Colossal	126	78	Colossal	1052	93		67
LSD 0.05	163	18		272		7		9

% Marketable = the number of Extra Large + Large + Medium + Small fruit divided by the number of Extra Large + Large + Medium + Small + Select + Cull fruit times 100.

% Marketable L = the number of Extra Large + Large fruit divided by the number of Extra Large + Large + Medium + Small + Select + Cull fruit times 100.

The following are the seven green pepper varieties in the trial. Use the 6 inch ruler on the left side for a size reference