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Question Regarding Crosses (Pepper Crosses That Is) !

16 years ago

Recently my brother gave me alot of peppers that he said he got from his father in law out in west texas. He told me that his father in law was growing chiltepins and tabascos side by side. The peppers look interesting. Interesting enough that I'd love to grow them and see if they grow true.

He actually grew the peppers that his father in law gave him and they grew similar to the pepper that his father in law gave him.

It looks like a fat tabasco pepper w/ a little dimple on the end, i'll see if i can get a scan of a pepper on my scanner, hopefully it will do the pepper justice

so now on to my question:

do you think this pepper would grow true if i just planted seeds (note: its a 2nd generation pepper, meaning the original crossed pepper that actually had the physical trait was seeded, and those seeds produced a pepper much like its parent, and i have those seeds)

i hope so, as it would be a neat lil pepper

as far as heat, its not as hot as a chiltepin

when i make salsa for myself for eating during breakfast or w/ something, i put in about 4 peppers, 1 clove of garlic, 1 roma tomato and crush all in a lava mortar/pestle and it is sooo good.

any thoughts / comments appreciated, links with pics to come shortly.

Danny

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Comments (5)

dangould
16 years ago
first lets make sure I understand the question correctly. You say you have a pepper from a definite cross of a chiltepin and tabasco. This pepper is different from both the chiltepin and the tabasco. Lets call this pepper CT1 for Chiltepin Tabasco #1.

You will take seeds from CT1 and grow them out and we can call them CT2.

Your question is will CT2 be exactly like CT1 and the answer is NO. Most probably not.

You can take some branches off the plant CT1 and root them. the rooted branches will be identical.

If you grow many plants of CT2 and then 3 and 4 etc. eventually you will get to a point where what you have should breed true. This usually happens by CT6. If you select carefully you might wind up with something very close to your CT1 that you like so well.

Now the good news. I think CT2 will be different from CT1 but the good news is that you will like CT2 as well or better than CT1. if you grow 4 plants you can expect on average to get one plant similar to C and one similar to T and 2 showing cross characteristics. But it really is much much much more complex then this.

One more important idea you need to know. You will probably have a better chance of finding a CT3 that is similar to CT1 then finding a CT2 similar. the CT2 are more sure to be different. Too many people give up when CT2 does not look like CT1. You must go to CT3 with the correct CT2 made seeds. The bad news is that most CT2 will not produce the best CT3 that you are looking for.

Personally I would ignore it all and just plant the seeds and make more the following year. They all will be nice and hot and tasty. Of course your winter is shorter than mine and you should at least try to keep the original plant alive and root some branches. I have an 8 month winter and have not succeeded in keeping them alive all winter. But it might work OK for you or for your friend in Texas.
byron
16 years ago
The problem is that Tobasco is C.Frutescens which rarely crosses with other varieties.
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Quote : Posted by peppernewbie_wa (My Page) on Sun, Feb 21, 10 at 22:45 Just wondering what to use to cover the flowers with to keep them from crossing? Suggestions anyone? end quote =================================================== As I have posted before, You can get a very fine woven nylon French tulle from fabric stores and cover your specific plant or just a branch of it with it. Bees, moths, flies, etc cannot go thopugh that and your pepper will self polinate. You can leave that tulle on as long as you want because it will not block air nor light. But once you are done you can remove it, tag that branch/fruits to collect seeds from them. You can do this with tomatoes, and eggplants as well(if you have more than on var). This fabric can also block certain insects and bugs and maybe rabbits too.
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Since pepper flowers are capable of pollinating themselves, chaances are they they get pollinated soon after they open, before a different cultivar can cross with them. It is already fairly rare. To guarantee that crosses do not occur, you can bag the blossom with any number of materials. I have heard of people making little bags out of toole (a type of fine netlike fabric). You could probably also use some sort of women's nylons. Don't use a plastic bag though, as it may overheat and it traps moisture. As soon as the flower shows signs of a pepper, you can remove the bag, just mark the pepper to ensure you remember which one it is.
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Yes. I means that the resulting hybrid seeds germinated normally. Contrast that to IV, or "inviable", where the cross produced seeds, but the seeds did not germinate. The chart is obviously from a paper describing experiments. It would be nice to see the original paper. As I say above, the entries seem to be describing different things about the crosses.
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dangould
16 years ago
I just remembered a few crosses produce seeds that are not viable. But in this case I think the seeds will be viable and grow.
reyna1
Original Author
16 years ago
i think im on the CT3 right now because the following is what happened :

tabasco + chiltepin
CT1 (plant that brother's father in law had) + ?
CT2 (plant that my brother grew from cross)+CT2
(at this point i have seeds and will try to grow)

i know that the seeds are definitely viable, as its already been crossed at least 2 times....
so i guess that means that i should continue growing them and trying to keep them true and if they fail, get the ones that look most like the route i want.
oburn
16 years ago
trust me more than likely you have a cross.see if next genration has a low seed count.if so you have a cross.

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