Chlorophyll Fluorescence Sorting Method to Improve Quality of Capsicum Pepper Seed Lots Produced from Different Maturity Fruits

This work was conducted to investigate the efficacy of chlorophyll fluorescence (CF) sorting to improve seed germination, seedling emergence, and vigor of seeds produced from different maturity fruits of four different cultivars. Four harvest dates from each cultivar were evaluated by harvesting orange (immature), bright red (half-mature), dark red (mature), and dark red and soft (overmature) fruits. Seeds were either sorted or nonsorted after harvesting and standard laboratory germination, seedling emergence, and controlled deterioration tests were conducted. CF sorting significantly increased laboratory germination, seedling emergence, and seed vigor. Maximum improvements were obtained from seeds harvested from half-mature and mature stages. Mean germination improvement among cultivars between CF-sorted and nonsorted seeds were 14% in the immature seeds, 11% in half-mature seeds, 6% in mature seeds, and 9% in overmature seeds. Improvements in seedling emergence were 21%, 17%, 9%, and 10% and 4%, 11%, 10%, 14% for seed vigor (CD germination) in the all maturity stages of seed lots, respectively. CF has the potential to upgrade seed quality in pepper lots as a non-destructive sorting technology.