Keith,

To answer your questions, yes, crosses can occur between jalapeno and cayenne peppers because both of them are Capsicum annuums and it is very common for capsicum annuum varieties to cross with one another. In her book "Seed to Seed", Suzanne Ashworth cites research from the University of New Mexico that showed up to 80% crossing in some plant populations. Although peppers have perfect flowers and are, therefore, self-fertile, insect-caused cross-pollination is very common. Peppers don't have to be in the same species to cross, but I cannot tell you for sure which species will successfully cross with other species.

When you have cross-pollination, the seed you have from your original crossed fruit is not necessarily genetically stable, so you have to grow out multiple generations, selecting for the qualities you want with each generation. Once you plant seeds and get all identical plants that produce all identical peppers, then you have stabilized your mystery pepper.

If you wanted to save seeds from this year's 'mystery pepper' and replant them next year, you'd need to grow them in isolation to prevent further cross-pollination. Then, you'd select seeds to save next year from the plants/peppers that give you the quality---like a certain heat level---that you're selecting for.

Since you didn't grow out this year's "mystery pepper" in isolation or with bagged blossoms, this year's seeds of your mystery pepper already could be crossed with something else too. See how complicated it gets when you have something that cross-pollinates easily?

If you wanted to prevent cross-pollination, the standard recommendation for isolation is 500'. Otherwise, you could prevent pollination by bagging blossoms before they open and saving seeds only from bagged blossoms.

You need the advice of a plant breeder to tell you how many seeds you have to grow out to get what you want. Generally, the larger the number of plants you grow, the greater the chance of having a plant that gives you exactly what you want. There's no way to know how many generations it takes to stabilize a variety when you aren't positive how it was pollinated and whether it has just two parents or more than two parents. While it is likely your cayenne and jalapeno last year crossed, you should know that if you had 5 different pepper varieties growing, bees or other pollinators could have cross-pollinated with pollen that day from all the different varieties, not just the ones that seem like an obvious choice.

Hope this helps, and I've linked a website that shows you how to deliberately cross-pollinate a pepper. It also has a chart that shows what happens when different pepper species cross. And, I don't know if it matters to you at this point, but in general the pungent gene that gives peppers their heat is the dominant gene. That's why you commonly hear people complain that their 2nd-generation sweet peppers "turned hot" but you rarely hear them complain that their 2nd-generation hot peppers "turned sweet".

If you're interested in breeding your own vegetable varieties, check out Carol Deppe's book "Breed Your Own Vegetable Varieties".

Dawn

Here is a link that might be useful: Pepper Breeding at Fatali,net

Thanks Dawn,
I think I might just try bagging some blooms as this year I also have Habanero and a new hybrid called College 64 growing right next to the "mystery" plant.

Fatali.net is fascinating!

Another one of your posts saved to my clippings!

Keith

You're welcome.

Watch for my post on Hatch chile peppers. We're having a Hatch Chile Festival at our house this week. : )

Keith another possibility is the plant you saved seeds from was a hybrid. There are both hybrid and open pollinated seeds on the market. You would have to know what variety you bought to know for sure. I bought some Hatch chilies almost 2 years ago and saved seeds and grew them out last year. They were hybrids for sure. I grew 4 plants and each was different.

I've had very little trouble with peppers or tomatoes crossing. I also have few insect pollinators most years. This year I planted flowers between my tomatoes and have had more. So will see if I see more crosses next year. Jay

Jay,

Great point. I was assuming he had OPs and didn't even think about a hybrid reverting to its genetic bloodlines, so to speak.

I don't think peppers cross as easily in my garden as you'd expect, because I have some of the ornamental ones self-sow and volunteer every year, and they seem to come true to type...even the ones sold as hybrids.

I don't even start that many seeds of ornamental pepper types any more because I know if I am patient, I'll have volunteer ornamental peppers pop up in the pathways close to wherever I grew ornamental peppers the year before. I usually see them in late April of most years. My edible peppers don't self-sow since I religiously pick and eat/preserve every pepper they produce, and I wouldn't trust them if they did, because I think just about all the edible peppers I grow are named hybrid selections.

Dawn

Jay,
Thanks for your reply, I consider you one of the Oklahoma friends even though you live in Kansas :)

"Keith another possibility is the plant you saved seeds from was a hybrid. There are both hybrid and open pollinated seeds on the market. You would have to know what variety you bought to know for sure."

The local greenhouse I bought the plants from is a small one man operation who even has a small furniture store at the same location. I'm pretty sure he grows everything from seed himself as he has stacks of potting soil and other supplies along with overhead racks for more seed starting space. One reason I've done business with him for years is he is very reasonable on his prices. Last year when it was close to time to put out onion plants, I checked both Lowes and Home Depot for the White Granex variety that I like and both places wanted $3.59 / bunch. Shelby had the same variety @ $1.50 / bunch. His price on tomato and pepper plants is still around 35 cents each.

I had thought of the hybrid possibility but the cayenne plants I bought last year produced just a run of the mill red cayenne pepper just like those shown in the 3rd photo. This whole mystery cross was probably 1-1000000 odds that one of the peppers I saved for seed happened to be a cross.

I find this seed saving process of bagging blooms to be fascinating and started my experiment to save true seeds from my cross this morning. My Grandfather always said "Poor Man, Poor Ways" so I got to thinking about making these bags from ordinary household items. I came up with one bag fabricated from a coffee filter and another from a used dryer sheet. I'll see what happens in the next few days!

Thanks again for the advice,

Keith

Dawn,
I remember my Mother planting the ornamentals in the flower beds and they came back volunteer for years.

Also remember gettin' my 'butt blistered' for convincing my little sis that the peppers were candy

Keith

Keith,

You were a very bad boy. I'm assuming you grew out of your bad boy ways and also am assuming your little sis survived being your little sis. You deserved that blistering, too!

Dawn

Dawn,

I'm assuming you grew out of your bad boy ways and also am assuming your little sis survived being your little sis.

Yes, actually Patti is more of a hot pepper fan than I. Her and Mike eat jalapenos or habanero sauce at every meal.

Keith

That's because you killed her capsaicin receptors with the early exposure to high capsaicin levels. Well, that's not exactly it....but it is close.

Read the first paragraph in the link to see how you "helped" your sis develop a higher tolerance for capsaicin.

Didn't know you were being so helpful, did you?

Here is a link that might be useful: Why Some Like It Hotter Than Others

Didn't know you were being so helpful, did you?