INTERRELATIONS AMONG FEATURES OF FLORAL DEVELOPMENT AND ABORTIONS IN CHILLI (CAPSICAM ANNUUM CV C10)

ONG, H.T. and RAMLAH MOHAMMAD

SUMMARY

Capsicum annuum cv C10 was cultivated in the field for six months. New flower buds of six randomly selected plants were tagged weekly and their floral development noted. The chilli plant showed two cyclical changes in floral development which led to two rounds of fruit harvests during cultivalion. In the first cycle, buds formed in earlier weeks yielded 85 percent of the first fruit harvest. This was due to that in later weeks of the first cycle there was high abortions of buds. There was much less fruit harvest in the second round due to much higher bud abortions in the second cycle than in the first cycle. The formation of new flower buds was inversely related to the number of large fruits. Higher abortions of flowers and small fruits were also positive correlated to number of large fruits. The chilli plant produced during the six months cultivation an average of 1180 flower buds, 362 flowers, 229 small fruits, 159 large or harvestable fruits, the harvested fruit averaging 4.3 g.

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