Under pot culture The screening of germplasm was also carried out under pot culture, for which seeds were first treated with carbendazim (0.1 per cent) and sowing was done in the first week of February. The seedlings were immersed for thirty minutes in the conidial suspension of Colletotrichum capsici (107 spores/ml) before transplanting into the pots. The plants were sprayed with the inoculum at the time of fruit setting to ensure challenge to the plants with the adequate pathogen load. The pots were regularly irrigated and to maintain the moisture the pots were covered with polythene bags for the initial 24 hours after inoculation. The experiment was laid under completely randomized design with three replications and the observations in terms of per cent disease intensity and disease reaction of each genotype were recorded as in field condition.
On detached chilli fruit Semi-ripe fruits of chilli from each germplasm were collected from the field and surface sterilized with 0.1 per cent mercuric chloride solution for thirty seconds and washed thoroughly thrice with sterile distilled water to remove any traces of mercuric chloride. The surface sterilized chilli fruits were air dried by placing on sterilized blotting paper and inoculated by inflicting shallow pin-pricks at two places. Uniform drops of C. capsici conidial suspension (107 spores/ml) were placed on fruits at the site of pinpricks with the help of micropipette. The inoculated fruits of each germplasm were placed in sterilized petriplates by making moist chambers and incubated at 25±20C.Three replications of each germplasm were maintained and observations on disease development were recorded after 8 days of inoculation.