(253) `TAM Ben Villalon' and `TAM Valley Hot': Two New Pepper Cultivars from the Texas Agricultural Experiment Station at Weslaco
The Texas Agricultural Experiment Station/Texas A&M University announces the release of two new open-pollinated cultivars of long chile. The first, `TAM Ben Villalon,'(TBV) is a long green chile/Anaheim type, while the second, `TAM Valley Hot,' (TVH) is a large cayenne type. Both cultivars have complex pedigrees involving TAES potyvirus resistant germplasm developed by Ben Villalon. Consequently, they exhibit resistance to some strains of tobacco etch virus when mechanically inoculated. In addition, TBV exhibits resistance to several strains of pepper mottle virus. These new cultivars out-yielded their comparable commercial cultivars, `Sonora,' and `Mesilla', when grown with drip irrigation at Weslaco and Uvalde, Texas. TBV yielded 16,632 kg/ha of green pods, compared to 14,228 kg/ha for `Sonora.' Both cultivars had similar capsaicin concentrations of 30–40 ppm on a fresh-weight basis. TBV pods are significantly heavier than those of `Sonora' due to thicker flesh. It should be useful for the green chile processing and fresh market industries. TBV may also be dried at the red stage to produce chile powder, which is very similar in quality to that of `NM 6-4.' TVH pods are not significantly different from `Mesilla' for size or weight, but contain significantly more capsaicin (670 vs. 320 ppm) when grown at Weslaco. TVH should be well-suited to the cayenne mash industry for hot sauce production due to its high heat level. Both cultivars will be distributed through commercial seed companies after receiving approval for Plant Variety Protection Patents.