E.A.M. de Swart: Towards energy saving sweet pepper cultivars

Sweet pepper (Capsicum annuum L.) is an important greenhouse crop in the Netherlands. Sweet pepper plants generally require relatively high temperatures to grow and produce fruit. As a consequence, the energy input needed to grow sweet pepper is high as well as the CO2 emission. One approach to save energy is to lower the greenhouse temperature. To do so cultivars are needed that are adapted to cooler growing conditions. The current research shows the potential to breed for sweet pepper cultivars adapted to such cooler growing conditions. Within the genus Capsicum, some wild accessions are better adapted to lowered temperatures than others. This genetic diversity can be used to breed for lowered temperature tolerance. Also, several plant characteristics which can be used to select for lowered temperature tolerance have been identified and methods were developed which can be used to simplify this selection. Finally, this research shows that marker assisted selection can be used to breed for growth and development in Capsicum. In short, this thesis presents new tools for breeding sweet pepper cultivars adapted to cooler growing conditions, thus enabling a reduction in energy use and CO2 emission.

Thesis: "Potential for breeding sweet pepper adapted to cooler growing conditions. A physiological and genetic analysis of growth traits in Capsicum"