Calidad de semilla en colectas de chile de agua (Capsicum annuum L.) de los Valles Centrales de Oaxaca, México

the crop of "chile de agua" in the central valley of oaxaca is economically important due to its generalized consumption in this region. the seed to establish this crop is obtained through the traditional method, for this reason the physical and physiological quality standards of those seeds is unknown. the aim of this research was to determine the physical and physiological quality in the seed of 14 landraces of "chile de agua" produced in three environments. the 14 landraces were sown at san sebastián abasolo, tlacolula, oaxaca during the 2004 spring-summer and fall-winter cycles under field condition and at montecillo, mexico under greenhouse conditions. the experimental design was a randomized complete block with four replications. from the three environments five ripened fruits from each of five plants per plot were taken for seed evaluation. the physical quality of the seed was evaluated through the weight of 1000 seeds and volumetric weight, whereas the physiological quality by means of standard germination and after accelerated aging, seedling and root length and dry weight. in a principal component analysis the first two components explained 98.36% of the total variation; the variables important in the first component were weight of 1 000 seeds, volumetric weight and seedling length, for the second component were germination with and without accelerated aging. a cluster analysis formed four groups of landraces; landraces from san sebastián abasolo and santiaguito showed high physical and physiological seed quality reflected in a higher percentage of germination and favorable response to accelerated aging and greater volumetric and one thousand seeds weight, as well as greater accumulation of dry matter in the three environments.