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Cross Pollination in Peppers?

14 years ago

I have a question about growing Peppers. I'm growing some Jalapenos, Cayenne and Red Peppers for the first time. They definitely aren't very far apart, only like two feet max. The plants look fine and some have some blossoms are producing peppers but I was not aware of the dangers of peppers cross pollinating.

I started to notice that atleast one of the jalapeno plants was producing the long and skinny cayenne peppers and that's when I started googling for more info.

The thing that gets confusing is, I also read that cross pollination is only a problem if you want to keep the seeds, which I don't plan to. Yet, I'm seeing a cayenne pepper grow in my jalapeno pepper section. It seems like it's cross pollinating to do that, but maybe I just made a mistake planting?

I know what to do to prevent cross pollination (the Tulle bags) but I'm not even sure if it's necessary for me to do all that work since I don't plan on keeping seeds.

Can anyone enlighten me?

Comments (3)

chillilover
14 years ago
Cross pollination will only affect seeds. Tulle will produce pure seed but if your not keeping seed you don't need to. If you Jalapeno is producing long cayenne type peppers it might have been mislabeld or crossed last season. So no need to worry if not keeping seeds.
rob86
Original Author
14 years ago
Thanks that makes me feel better (wasn't looking forward to covering up all the plants!). I transplanted a whole bunch of plants and must have got some mixed up during planting.
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I'm gonna be honest here. I'm not looking to start a new strain to put on the market. I just figured I'd let a few plants in my garden be something weird next year. I figure thai x brain would have to be an interesting plant. they're both good tasting peppers, one is hot and the other one is really hot. I mean, what could go wrong? seems like whatever traits it ends up getting would be something I'd like. and it's gotta look weird. and the thai puts off a ton of peppers, really early in the season. I'd love my wacky F1 cross to get that trait. let's keep in mind I have precisely zero experience in this, this is my first year growing. that might be why I'm so optimistic. but my season is nowhere near over, so I intend to keep experimenting.
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You are right sluginator. Pollination can only affect the seeds produced in the pods. What you get in terms heat , size, shape, flavor , .. comes from the seed that you planted. The flavor and heat of a given pepper can be affected by what stage it is at, growing condition ( sun, heat, water ..). Some peppers are hot from day one. Some develop it later. CASE : Today I picked few young green Thai Hots.They were tasty but had ZERO heat.
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nagajolokia
14 years ago
Speaking of cross pollination, my Sannams and Pusa Jwala have got mixed up and are groing like crazy. First flower buds have set in. I am sure that I am going to have a mixed breed of hot peppers.
Thank God, I am not going to use the resulting seeds next year.
I might move to Texas and will try some exotic varieties and my Nagas.

NJA

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