The breeder also notices a great interest in the fiery Ruevit
Associate Professor Dr. Velichka Todorova – pepper breeder at the Institute of Vegetable Crops (IZK) “Maritsa”, showed new ones varieties of pepper, which she, as a leading researcher, created in a collective with other scientists. Bulgarian peppers – old maintained varieties, new certified varieties as well as candidate varieties – occupied the longest stand during the institute’s open day held this week under the motto “Tastes of Bulgaria”.
Extremely interesting with their resistance to viruses are two varieties – Dan-Dan and Baltovska Kapia.
Dan-Dan is a candidate variety. It assumes that the valuable quality is resistant to one of the most dangerous groups of viruses – tobamo viruses, and in particular to the pepper virus – Pepper mild mottle virus (PMMoV). From this group is also tomato virus ToBRFVwhich unfortunately already occurs in our country.
“Dan-Dan is very interesting. It looks similar to White Lady Pepper, but there are very clear differences between them. In addition to the important resistance to PMMoV, Dan-Dan has pendulous fruits, while Ladybug has protruding oriented ones. Dan-Dan has a slightly more trapezoidal shape and has slightly larger fruits,” explained Prof. Todorova.
2024 is the second year of testing. Last year was a success, there is no reason why this year should be any different. In mid-2025, Dan-Dan is expected to be certified.
Baltic capia is a new certified variety. It has resistance to TMB. “For this sustainability, we worked for many years with Associate Professor Dimitrina Kostova,” recalled Velichka Todorova. The variety is not very attractive in form, but if there are growers with a field infected with the virus and they want to grow peppers, they can continue successfully with this variety.
Among the latest selection of Prof. Todorova is the Ruevit variety. It has a spicy taste. “In Bulgaria, there is definitely an interest in hot varieties, since first its seeds were bought, never mind that they were less than the other varieties,” noted the breeder.
“Zlatina is also a candidate variety. This pepper has very large fruits, colored orange when technically ripe. Rich in antioxidants and can be sought as an ingredient for children’s purees. Zlatina can be included in so-called functional foods,” explained the author.
Baltovska Kapia, Ruevit, Dan-Dan and Zlatina jointly established the Center for Plant and System Biology and Biotechnology. The joint project between the two scientific units will end early next year.
As early as this year, IZK “Maritsa” will be able to offer seeds of these varieties to growers.
At the pepper exhibition, guests could notice old local varieties such as Bulgarian Ratund and White Ladybug. Some of the relatively new varieties were also presented, such as Kaloyan and Ivaylovska Kapia, which gained great popularity. There was also interest in the F1 hybrid Milkana, as scientists have focused their efforts on F1 hybrids on a male-sterile basis.
We asked Associate Professor Velichka Todorova about the observations on pepper production. Is it increasing or decreasing? Her response was, “I think the pepper growers may be reducing or reducing their acreage. But we are not giving up. We continue to work to meet consumer demands in both taste and sustainability.”
#Prof #Velichka #Todorova #IZK #created #virusresistant #DanDan #Baltovska #capia #peppers
