Quantitative and qualitative attributes of two new bell pepper cultivars 'Ideal' and 'Carmin', grown in conventional and organic farming systems

Bell pepper crop has found favorable pedoclimatic conditions in Romania, especially in the south of the country where it has been registering the higher temperature. Currently, the range of bell peppers grown in the country has been plentiful with foreign cultivars. For example, a percentage of 95% of bell peppers cultivars grown in the greenhouses were from seeds coming from abroad. Due to climatic conditions of Romania, some of the foreign cultivars did not adapt to their true potential and some have been being lack of nutrient value. As a result of all this, a research program for obtaining autochthonous cultivars has been developing to meet the requirements of farmers, processors, and consumers. Recently, two new cultivars of bell peppers, ‘Ideal’ and ‘Carmin’ have been obtained at Vegetable Research and Development Station, Buzau. The aim of this study was to evaluate the quantitative and qualitative attributes of those cultivars in two different crop farming systems: conventional and organic. The experiment has been carried out for two years (2016-2017) at Vegetable Research and Development Station site. During the vegetation period, biometric and phenological observations were made and for physicochemical analysis, fruits were harvested in two mature stages: green and red. Samples from both crops have been harvested on the same day and the analyses have been carried out on fresh fruit. An important observation from this study was the significantly higher levels of β-carotene and lycopene registered in the organic crop. Regarding yield potential, significantly higher values were recorded on ‘Ideal’ cultivar in the conventional farming system.