Old Cultivars and Populations From Traditional Pepper-Growing Regions of Serbia as Breeding Potential

In order to collect and preserve the pepper gene fond (Capsicum annuum L.) material was collected in locations in South Serbia and Central Kosovo with long tradition of growing old pepper varieties. The area around the town of Aleksinac (villages Moravac, Pr?ilovac, Nozrina and Luzane) has a long tradition of growing old varieties and populations of pepper. The Zabarka and Cokotanka varieties are typical representatives hereof, and have been included in this study. From the area near the town of Leskovac (village Donja Lakosnica) we included the variety Lakosnicka. This variety is very much grown here and is intended for grinding. In Central Kosovo, material was gathered in Laplje selo and Preoce, and the varieties collected were Rosajka and Bobinka crvena. These varieties have very specific colour, shape, size, aroma, intensity of heat and mode of usage. The different varieties will be stored in the Serbia Gene Bank and become valuable material in the selection and breeding of pepper in programs for obtaining varieties suitable for drying. The characteristics of the plants and fruits were studied and according to these traits grouping was done. Correlation of genotypes and traits was done by PCA (Principal Component Analysis). PCA grouped genotypes according to their traits (morphological and chemical) in two groups each. Genotypes grouped in this way represent the basic material for program of breeding pepper varieties suitable for drying. The selected varieties on the basis of superiority of characteristics can be proved a valuable material for any pepper breeding of Serbia which can be recommended for commercial cultivation.