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"Soft flesh" pepper varieties and information

bunicutz32

bunicutz32

Hy everybody.

I am looking for chile peppers varieties expressing the " soft flesh" character, for a student project about expression and inheritance of this trait in Capsicum annuum. I was looking around about it and found almost no information. I know tabasco has soft flesh but I am mostly interested in C.annuum. So any reference to particular soft fleshed peppers and any piece of information is welcome.
Thanks,

Adrian
 
Soft flesh? I think the only way a fresh pepper will ever be soft is if it has really thin walls. pepper tend to get softer with time or when overripe.
 
Omri said:
Soft flesh? I think the only way a fresh pepper will ever be soft is if it has really thin walls. pepper tend to get softer with time or when overripe.
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No, actually the soft flesh is not correlated with thickness of fruit's wall, and occurs in the moment when pods ripen, not over-ripen. It is a normal process of breaking down the fruit wall, for an easier seed dispersal. Placenta is also soft. The best example is Tabasco. A number of tomato varieties have this trait too. It seems to be caused by a high level of an enzyme called polygalacturonase, but very few studies have been done in peppers since now. See some references:
The Genes of Capsicum
Polygalacturonase: a candidate gene for the soft flesh and deciduous fruit mutation in Capsicum - free access until December 31th
 
cool thought....

I dont' know of any annuums or chinense that soften when ripe like the tabasco but was just thinking...and wondering if that could be a trait of the frutescens species...if it is, piri piri (african birds eye), malagueta, and some thai peppers may work too...

And while you are at it....I read an article by a Phd that said (paqraphrasing here) the maximum content of capsaicin in a pepper occurs when the first ripe color starts to appear...after that, some of the capsaicin is metabolized to sugar and stored in the flesh of the pepper...I can't find this article online any more, it may be in a database I can't get into any more...I used to have a couple of memberships to some scholarly databases...
 
If I will find no annuum varieties with this trait, I will cross Tabasco x annuum to look for a possible introgression of it into annuum. But I remember I had some years ago an accession from the German genebank with this "soft flesh" but I didn't pay attention at that time and now I can't remember which CAP accession was. Hopefully I will redescover it again.
 
AlabamaJack said:
cool thought....

I dont' know of any annuums or chinense that soften when ripe like the tabasco but was just thinking...and wondering if that could be a trait of the frutescens species...if it is, piri piri (african birds eye), malagueta, and some thai peppers may work too...

And while you are at it....I read an article by a Phd that said (paqraphrasing here) the maximum content of capsaicin in a pepper occurs when the first ripe color starts to appear...after that, some of the capsaicin is metabolized to sugar and stored in the flesh of the pepper...I can't find this article online any more, it may be in a database I can't get into any more...I used to have a couple of memberships to some scholarly databases...
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Good point,

Same here with any of the "birds" or other frutescens, I'll pick'em green for stir fries and such while still firm.
But at the point of ripening the flesh changes its characteristics. The flesh tends to soften and deflate.
Not only the texture changes but also the taste. It seems like a short window between the unripe stage and the over ripened dryed "rista" stage.

Greg
 
I'm prof. Nowaczyk's PhD student. He is the author of the above mentioned papers.

I could talk to him and ask whether he'd be willing to share some of his private materials.

I am afraid, however, that it might only be the seeds of Capsicum frutescens or hybrids of C. frutescens and C. annuum. Were you interested we could exchange for some of the seeds you have got for trade.
 
I have a strain of Jalapeno Hercules that do just that. As soon as they turn fully red they get very soft makes it even hard to cut them up as they will just be a mess.

But not all my Jalapeno hercules turned out like this i also found them to be less hot then the another Hercules with hard flesh.

Dont know if it helps but send me a pm if you want to ask anymore questions.
 
PIC 1 said:
Good point,

Same here with any of the "birds" or other frutescens, I'll pick'em green for stir fries and such while still firm.
But at the point of ripening the flesh changes its characteristics. The flesh tends to soften and deflate.
Not only the texture changes but also the taste. It seems like a short window between the unripe stage and the over ripened dryed "rista" stage.

Greg
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That's the problem I had with the siling labuyo. Immediately soft when turned red. My tabasco was the same until the
weather started cooling, then they stayed firm.
 
Serranos probably qualify, though the Serrano types i'm remembering best are the Tampiqueno and the jumbo "Del Sol" ones.

They soften up a few days to a week after ripening on the vine, not in a nasty watery way either.
 
Jetchuka said:
Serranos probably qualify, though the Serrano types i'm remembering best are the Tampiqueno and the jumbo "Del Sol" ones.

They soften up a few days to a week after ripening on the vine, not in a nasty watery way either.
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Thanks for information. I am preparing now some seedlings of Serrano Tampiqueno for 2012 growing season (first time Serranos for me) and I will have a closer look in summer.
Best regards
 
bunicutz32 said:
Thanks for information. I am preparing now some seedlings of Serrano Tampiqueno for 2012 growing season (first time Serranos for me) and I will have a closer look in summer.
Best regards
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No problem, i hope they turn out the way you are expecting them to. The skin is crunchy, but as mentioned earlier, the thick-fleshed insides get softer the longer they are left to ripen on the vine.

I would also try the jumbo serranos, the Del Sol, if you can get the seeds. The larger size offers more flesh to soften up, and it'll increase your project's chance of success in my opinion.

They also make great snacking & salsa peppers, it has a quick heat, so i'm sure none of them will go to waste.

Good luck either way.
 
Thank to suggestion I had from one of the contributors to this topic, I grew this season some Serrano varieties and I'm seeing now they have soft flesh, especially TAM Serrano Hidalgo.
Thanks.
 
[background=rgb(255, 244, 228)] I will cross Tabasco x annuum to look for a possible introgression of it into annuum[/background]
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Did you try this over the summer? I'd be interested to know if it was a success or not because I've read that you can't cross a [background=rgb(255, 244, 228)]frutescens with anything but another [/background][background=rgb(255, 244, 228)]frutescens. Don't know if that is true or not, but I have read it several times. [/background]
 
Jeff H said:
Did you try this over the summer? I'd be interested to know if it was a success or not because I've read that you can't cross a [background=rgb(255, 244, 228)]frutescens with anything but another [/background][background=rgb(255, 244, 228)]frutescens. Don't know if that is true or not, but I have read it several times. [/background]
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I tried with a small number of flowers (annuum as female) but with no success. But I will try it again next year at a larger extend, if time and space will allow me.
 
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