Light-use Efficiency and Fruit Dry Matter Content Affect Fresh Yield of Sweet Pepper

Abstract

Improving the productivity of sweet pepper (Capsicum annuum) is essential to meeting the increasing global demand. This can be partially accomplished by investigating and determining high-yield traits, thereby enabling the selection or breeding of high-yield plants. Therefore, this study aimed to determine the high-yield traits of sweet pepper by analyzing its yield components. We analyzed yield components of commercially available cultivars (red and yellow) that were hydroponically grown in a greenhouse (e.g., total fruit fresh weight, fruit dry weight, fruit dry matter content, total dry matter production, and light-use efficiency) using Pearson’s correlation coefficient (r). Our results showed the following: the total fruit fresh weight was positively and negatively correlated with the fruit dry weight (r = 0.83; P < 0.001) and fruit dry matter content (r = –0.70; P < 0.001), respectively; the fruit dry weight was positively correlated with the total dry matter production (r = 0.50; P < 0.01), and the total dry matter production was positively correlated with the light-use efficiency (r = 0.93; P < 0.001); and the cultivars with the high total fruit fresh weight were characterized by the notably low fruit dry matter content and high light-use efficiency (e.g., ‘Gialte’). In conclusion, high-yielding sweet peppers are characterized by a low fruit dry matter content and high light-use efficiency.