L. Hodges et al., ADAPTABILITY AND RELIABILITY OF YIELD FOR 4 BELL PEPPER CULTIVARS ACROSS 3 SOUTHEASTERN STATES, HortScience, 30(6), 1995, pp. 1205-1210
Four bell pepper (Capsicum annuum L,) cultivars were evaluated for yie
ld (total weight of marketable fruit) performance over 41 environments
as combinations of 3 years, three planting dates, and seven locations
across North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia, Cultural practice
s, including trickle irrigation and double rows planted on black-plast
ic-covered beds, were uniform across all environments, except for fert
ilization, which was adjusted at each Location based on soil tests, Co
mparing production over 3 years between the mountain location and the
Coastal Plain location in North Carolina, yields were lower on the Coa
stal Plain, Spring plantings provided higher yields than summer planti
ngs at both locations, Yield increases were obtained from hybrid culti
vars over that of the open-pollinated (OP) standard ['Keystone Resista
nt Giant #3' (KRG#3)] in the summer planting in the mountains compared
to the Tidewater Coastal Plain, Across the three-state region, hybrid
cultivar yields were higher than those of the OP cultivar for the sec
ond spring planting date in 1986 and 1987, Although the hybrid yields
were higher than that of the OP standard, the hybrid 'Skipper' yielded
less than the other hybrids ('Gator Belle' and 'Hybelle'), 'Gator Bel
le' generally out-yielded 'Hybelle'' at all locations, except in Fletc
her, N,C, This difference may be related to the relative sensitivity o
f these two cultivars to temperature extremes, rather than soil or geo
graphic factors, because there was a tendency for 'Hybelle' yields to
exceed 'Gator Belle' in the earliest planting date, Based on the relia
bility index, the chance of outperforming KRG#3 (the standard) was 85%
for 'Hybelle', 80% for 'Gator Belle', but only 67% for 'Skipper'.