Tropical and subtropical vegetables (2+1)

Seed production

• Chilli is a self pollinated crop but cross pollution also takes place to some extent. The isolation distance between two cultivars may be kept 250-400 m apart to avoid cross pollination. Good healthy and well developed fruits should be selected for producing seeds. The off types and disease affected plants are taken out atleast thrice during crop period. First before flowering on the basis of flowers of external plant characters.
• Second at the time of flowering on the basis of flower characters and finally at the time of pod maturity on the basis of pod characters. Complete ripe pods are harvested and dried properly for 15-20 days in sunlight or 2-3 days in drier at 550C. Later on, the seeds can be extracted from the dry chillies. Simple mechanical seed extractor also used for extraction of seeds. Siever is used for separation of seeds fitted with wire mesh. This procedure brings down the extraction cost by 50 per cent and enhances germination per cent to 90 per cent.
• The capsicum plant is generally cross-pollinated crop. The isolation distance between two cultivars should be kept 200m for foundation seed and 100 m for certified seed. Off types are removed as soon as these are observed. 3 to 4 rougings depending on the purity of the seed desired. Field inspections should be done at least twice or thrice. The fruit should be picked when red ripe and cut and crushed or macerated by machines. Seed is to be washed to make it free from and skin. After washing it should be dried and used for sowing. The seed yield is 105 to 225 kg/ha.