Evaluation of resistance of lines, hybrids F-1 and cultivars of sweet pepper to Meloidogyne spp.

With the purposes of evaluating F-1 hybrids of sweet pepper, together with their parents, for resistance to Meloidogyne incognita (races 1, 2, 3 e 4) and M.:javanica nematodes, an experiment was conducted in glasshouse condit ions in the facilities of Pioneer Sementes Ltda, in Ijaci, MG, Brazil. A ra ndomized block in split-plot design was used with five plots,: composed of four races of M. incognita and one isolate of M. javanica, and 48 subplots, composed of 47 genotypes of sweet pepper and one cultivar of tomato (Angel a Gigante I-5100) as a standard check. Five replicates and eight plants in each subplot were used. Inoculation was done with 60 eggs/mL of substrate m ixture of vermiculite, Pinus sp. bark and carbonized rice husk. After 60 da ys following inoculation, the evaluations were performed. All the cultivars and standard-lines (line 004 and line 005) were susceptible to the races 1 , 2, 3 and 4 of M, incognita. All the genotypes of sweet pepper were resist ant to M. javanica. Almost all of the experimental lines were proved to be resistant to all of the four races of M. incognita. The same occurred to mo st of the experimental hybrids F-1, although the degree of resistance of th e hybrids in general was lower than that of their respective resistant pare nts. It is thus proven to be feasible to utilize F-1 hybrids by crossing re sistant to susceptible sweet pepper lines to control the nematodes M. incog nita and M. javanica through varietal resistance.