Chillies 2021

Did you grow these from seed?
Or buy the plants?

That is a nice range.

 

As I was saying......

Yesterday afternoon I had to drop something off at a client.
Drove past a garden centre on the the way.......

Chenzo
Gusto Purple (2 plants)

Oh dear

 

Thank you and yes I grew them from seed, but I'm waiting for 6 plants to arrive from a online order but they seem to be late this year. I ordered the plants just in case the seeds didn't do very well, so got more plants that i really need. We like the very hot ones, at first we thought that they were too hot but get used to it.

 

Thank you to all of you that responded to my "hand pollination fail" post! If truth be told @CanadianLori and @pete -- my hand pollination effort was just trying to pollinate the flower with a cotton bud / gentle tap rather than go from flower to flower or anything more adventurous! Obviously my motor skills are lacking, plenty of pollen ended up everywhere but the stigma so hopefully the gentle breeze or pollinators will just do it for me outside.

 

Today had my 6 Chilli plants arrive and they're great, about 6 or 8in in 9cm pots, got good roots on them and need potting on. They're 2 of each Carolina Reaper, Trinidad Scorpion and Armagedon.

 

Those are some very strong ones

I see that Carolina Reaper has been surpassed quite substantially.
Pepper X is rated at 3.18 million Scoville units !

 

I have a fan on in my greenhouse.
Hopefully that will be sufficient for pollination

 

Yes I think that Armagedon is hotter.

 

Hi Lori, long time! How are things?
I have two, probably dumb, questions for you, if you can.
Do chilli plants cross-pollinate between varieties?
And also, do they need company to be productive?

Last year I grew only one variety, outdoor. Quite a few plants and I bunched them all in pots in the same sunny area.
This summer I have three varieties (cajenna, peruvian lemon and some mistery one saved from seeds). Today I was about to place them outside in a few different places in the garden.
But I realized that I do not know if I can mix and match safely, and if it would be a waste to pop a few single plant here and there to see how they do.

 

Hi @Aldo , while @CanadianLori replies much more informed-ly... here are my two cents....chillies cross pollinate easily if within the same type ( capsicum annum - cayenne definitely is , depending on your mystery , that probably is too?)... if by peruvian lemon you mean aji limon i **think** that is a baccatum which does cross pollinate with annum but much more effectively with itself. Chillies are self fertile so a single isolated plant should also give you chillies ( atleast that has been my experience when growing the odd plant many years ago on a windowsill).

 

@Aldo,

My understanding is that it doesn't matter if the different types cross pollinate - If you want the chillies. The recipient plants will produce the same fruits irrespective of where the pollen is from.

If you are hoping to save some seed to resow next year, that is a different matter.
The offspring of cross pollinated plants won't be true to the parents, but a mix of both characteristics.

 

Capsicums are promiscuous, as my mother in law discovered after growing sweet and hot peppers together and saving the seeds for the following year. Her salads became famous.

Even though first year fruit should come true to their mothers, I'm wondering if cross pollinating could meddle with gene regulation or expression or whatever in the growing fruit, favouring some traits that are very strong in the pollinating variant. (Kitchen genetic speaking, sorry for the totally vague uneducated talk! You know what I mean, I hope )

I'm growing two totally different types, small Basket of Fire and large Hungarian Black. These were hand-cross pollinated over the spring indoors, and the earliest Basket Fruit are definitely bigger and turning purple, whereas the later fruit probably pollinated after the plants went out, produce smaller fruit that are turning light bright orange.


Late, orange Basket fruit



Early, purplish Basket fruit



Hungarian Black

 

@Aldo , sorry for my slow response. I've been quite busy lately.

I have had lots of chillies cross pollinate so everyone once in awhile I buy fresh seed so as to get back to "basics".

I had a weird cross of Chocolate Douglah and Devil's Tongue and other strange combos.

It's all playing so however you want to play the game, it's your rules to make up as you go along.

If you don't want them to cross, keep them with their relatives only. Otherwise, get ready for some fun!

 

Thanks everybody!

@Lovechillies You are right, it is an Aji! The X one is some Indian variety I think, it came with an Hello Fresh box. Great to know that they are self fertile, it makes it much easier to run some location experiments in preparation for next year.
Pepper Chilli Seeds - Peruvian Lemon Drop | Suttons

@Sirius That's good to know, thanks Space is a bit limited so the bulk of them will sit quite close.

@Selleri Thanks, last year I grew a few peppers quite close to the chilli plants and I noticed that some beans were quite plain tasting, which left me wondering if cross pollination was to blame.
Your chilli plants (and tomatoes from the other thread) look awesome! I used lights and started them quite early, but they are way smaller than yours and no flowers yet, but I think they will catch up eventually.

@CanadianLori Thanks Lori! Most will be close anyway, so I guess I might see some interesting mix, but I will keep at least one Aji and one X separated, for reference.

 

A question re over-wintering

My greenhouse is kept at min 5*c
Is that too cold for dormant chillies ?
Will they survive the winter ?
Or should I rather bin them and start again next season ?