I am looking for Planet Hybrid pepper seeds. It'a available from Jung and Totally Tomatoes in the U.S. but they don't ship to Canada. Maybe someone know a canadian source. It's suppose to be a very profilic sweet pepper variety. Thanks

Cold war propaganda! First of all, Lamarck never claimed that environmentally induced modifications are directly inherited. The creationist Cuvier parodied Lamarck's idea of evolution, and many Darwinists let the criticism stand. Eventually Huxley read Lamarck for himself and concluded that he should not be dismissed. Consider two populations. One stretches for one reason or another, the other does not. In which population would random gene mutations favoring long necks be favored? Simply stated, changes in the behavior of an animal will alter the selective pressures exerted on its heredity. This nonsense about the inheritance of acquired characters needs to stop. Lamarck stated very clearly that "whatever the environment may do, it does not work any direct modification whatever in the shape and organisation of animals." Iarovization is not about making seeds germinate faster. Critics who have not bothered to study the matter closely have confused two distinct subjects. 1) Seeds, tubers, bulbs, etc. contain nutrients in the form of relatively insoluble starches, phytates and proteins. These are not available to the seedling or shoot until they are digested by appropriate enzymes. Iarovization is a pre-treatment that encourages the activity of the digestive enzymes while keeping the embryo or bud dormant. Thus, when the shoot emerges it has a ready supply of soluble nutrients, and is able to grow almost as fast as its cells can divide. The plants get off to a faster start, grow larger and either flower earlier or give a higher yield. Here is a recent study that is not Russian, so your prejudice will not be offended. "The time required for shoot emergence and flowering decreased as bulb vernalization duration increased. More than four weeks of cold treatment were required for early shoot emergence and flowering, 100% flowering, and an increased number of flowers." Lee, J., Kim, Young A. and Wang, H. 1996. The effect of bulb vernalization on the growth and flowering of Asiatic hybrid lily. Acta Hort. (ISHS) 414:229-234 2) The conversion of winter wheat to spring varieties was an exercise in selective breeding. A quantity of seed was divided into several lots that were chilled for different periods. Some batches completed their growth and flowered. These were of no further use. Other batches failed to germinate. These too were of no use. Among the several groups was one that gave partial generation and a relative few plants that were able to complete their growth and produce seeds. These were the foundation of a new strain with reduced chilling requirement. Neither of these techniques has anything to do with the imaginary theory of inheritance of acquired characteristics. Check out this non-Soviet article about floral induction in Arabidopsis. Cell. 107: 525-535. (November 16, 2001) The VERNALIZATION 2 Gene Mediates the Epigenetic Regulation of Vernalization in Arabidopsis, by Anthony R. Gendall, Yaron Y. Levy, Allison Wilson, and Caroline Dean. Department of Cell and Developmental Biology, John Innes Centre. "Genetic studies of the transition to flowering in the model plant Arabidopsis have revealed four major floral promotion pathways. The photoperiod and vernalization pathways integrate environmental signals into the flowering decision, while the autonomous and gibberellin (GA) pathways appear to act largely independently of external cues. These pathways form a quantitative network that regulates the timing of the transition from a vegetative to reproductive phase of development." By selecting against the vernalization pathway, as Avakian did with wheat, the other pathways would remain available. Selection would determine which of these would predominate in the developing strain. How is Lamarck involved in any of this? There is an important chapter in the debate that is commonly ignored in textbooks. Eugenics. In the UK and US, anyone who pretended to be scientific in anything was probably a supporter of the Eugenics movement. The basic principle of Eugenics, for those who just tuned in, is that "The Poor" have a moral responsibility to remain celibate to avoid producing offspring to inconvenience the upper classes. It's a nasty idea, but the neo-Darwinists were generally in favor of it and condemned as "unscientific" the Michurinists who disagreed. Lysenko, Gluschenko and others were outspoken in their condemnation of racism, apartheid and eugenics. Getting back to the original subject, much of the current research in graft hybridization is being done in Japan. Taller, J., Y. Hirata, et al. (1998). Graft-induced genetic changes and the inheritance of several characteristics in pepper (Capsicum annuum L.). Theoretical and Applied Genetics 97(5-6): 705-713. Taller, J. (1999) Graft-induced variants as a source of novel characteristics in the breeding of pepper (Capsicum annuum L.) Euphytica 108 (2): 73-78. Hirata, Y., S. Ogata, N. Maruyama, J. Taller, N. Yagashita. Molecular mechanism of graft transformation in red pepper (Capsicum anuum L.) XXVIth International Horticultural Congress, Toronto, Canada. Aug 11-17, 2002. For more information on Lysenko's "discredited" theory of phasic development, do a web search on the phrase "phasic development".

I've got little peppers on my KOTN - about as big as a thimble. Last year they were late too (and this year I planted later). I spaced about 24" last year, this year the bells were a little closer, about 18", I had to squeeze them in the half row left after planting tomatoes. Soil N tested OK, and the tomatoes did well (but my "early" varieties were late as well), but I think the decomposed bark mulch base mixed with compost on top near the house grew the plants better last year than the sandy loam with coffee hulls, wood shavings, and manure this year. Or maybe it was b/c we had more rain last year, and the 1 month we didn't I had drip. Anyway, I'm going to be amending that bed with more manure for next year. Coffee hulls were an experiment this year - don't seem to work well for anything except compost activator.

I originally thought about stuffers too archerb. However after looking at the picture on Fried's website I ruled this out. I based this upon the lack of gel surrounding the seeds. Stuffer tomatoes have a gel surrounding the seeds (though occassionally due to some enviornmental issue parts can be dry - seeds are usually discolored dark when I have noted this in the past). Pepper fruits' seeds are "dry" having no noticable gel around the seeds. The seeds in the Frieda picture also appear to be more pepper like in color and shape than tomato. I have wondered how many people are interested in stuffer tomatoes. One there own, I find them dry and taste-wise unappealing. However I do think that with the right chef/application smaller ones could/should be developed for the use of hors'deovuers (sp). I think this would be an excellent and appealing use for chefs looking for something different. The challenge is getting something small but hollow enough AND somewhat firm to be able to hold whatever contents added (especially if heated). What I have attempted with stuffing tomatoes is limited on the cooking time before the sides collapse and then just turn to mush. I found a heating the stuffing and then a quick run under a broiler/toaster oven to brown the top and warm makes for an acceptible presentation.