Hello all. I've been a lurker for awhile but decided it was time to join in the fun!
I've got a question regarding hybridizing. In particular, what is considered the optimal time of day to set pods?
Last year was my first "serious" attempt at performing controlled crosses, however I hit some issues. I believe the main issue was with my timing of pollination, so I'm looking for some tips! Here is a run-through of the procedure I followed last year:
Before I'd leave for work in the morning (~6am or so) I'd collect some flowers that were just starting to open (anthers still closed). I would remove the anthers and place them in a shallow dish. I'd then set the dish in the kitchen with the ceiling fan on to dry the pollen.
Once I got back home for the night (~8pm) I would do my pollination. I would select flowers that were still closed, but due to open the next morning. I emasculated said flowers and applied pollen that I had collected earlier in the day. The flower was then tagged to designate the cross.
Pod set using this method was extremely poor. I knew that this probably wasn't the best way to do my crosses, but due to my work schedule it was the best I could manage. (Quick note: all plants were C.annuum). Now it was quite hot here in north central Texas last summer so that probably had a hand in the poor pod set, but the plants were still producing some pods that were self pollinated. I did manage to set a few pods but some interesting things happened. First, if the pod did manage to set, it just sat there for about 3-4 days before it started growing. Normally if a pod sets it starts growing and elongating fairly quickly. Mine just sat there the same size initially, but eventually started growing as usual. I let them fully mature and collected the seed, but I came across another issue. Most of the seeds were obviously no good. The size, shape and color were fine but the centers were sunken and shriveled. I collected about 65 seeds in total and nearly all had this look with the exception of a very few.
Jump to this spring, I planted all of the seeds from my crossing efforts and..................nothing. Not one single seed germinated. I started them at the same time as all my other (non hybrid) seeds, indoors under lights, same soil, and watering. Nada. The non-hybrid seeds were up and going in 2 weeks or less. I knew most of the seeds were duds but planted them anyway just to give them the benefit of the doubt. I gave them 2 full months in the seed starting area in the off chance they were "late bloomers" but alas, nothing.
So, after going back through my notes from last years growing season I've come up with a few possible reasons for my troubles..
1. Pollinating at the wrong time. Perhaps I was applying pollen to flowers whose pistils were not yet receptive?
2. The seeds that failed had one thing in common: the pollen parent. In this case Peter Pepper.
On a side note it appears that I DID get some natural hybrids from Peter Pepper X Anaheim. I planted out seeds from peter pepper pods I collected last fall and some definitely do not look like a true peter pepper. My Anaheim plants were growing next to the peters, and as I did not cover the plants, this was to be expected. Not that I'm upset about it, since I was trying to cross these plants and failed. I'll get some pics of them and post them later on today. Kinda interesting looking. Shape is quite similar to an Anaheim, not quite as long but are a good bit larger than a true peter pepper. Some are slightly wrinkled but not to the extent of PP. Perhaps the most interesting thing of all is that nearly all of the pods taper down to an indented tip that sort of look like a pair of butt cheeks lol. That's about the best way I can think to describe it. I have 3 plants that show this type of growth and from what I've read, the F1 offspring tend to look similar to one another. I'm in the process of doing some controlled self crosses (covering with netting) and will plant those seeds out next spring. If these plants are in fact hybrids, then I should see a pretty wide range of traits in the F2 kids.
But getting back to the main problem... what would be considered the best procedure to get more pods to set from my breeding efforts? I've been trying out different methods this year and so far I've not had much luck. I do have a few pods set, but they are exhibiting the same issue I ran into last year...sit there for 3-4 days before actually growing. Because of this I'm not putting much faith into any seeds that come out of those pods. I'll still plant them out and hope for the best though. One method I've started trying the past few days is going out at night and finding which flowers are due to open the next morning, emasculate them, and the next day pollinate them with fresh pollen. Hasn't been long enough to tell if his method will work very well, and also too we've just started a stretch of hot weather, at or near 100 during the day and lower 80's at night so that's not going to help. We've got a cooldown next week so hopefully I can take advantage of it.
Thanks in advance for any tips! I'm still trying to figure out the finer details of pepper breeding. Most of my breeding experience is with daylilies, which were a snap to breed, but the results tended to be more chaotic since you were dealing with hybrid X hybrid crosses. But not knowing what exactly you would get was part of the fun!
I've got a question regarding hybridizing. In particular, what is considered the optimal time of day to set pods?
Last year was my first "serious" attempt at performing controlled crosses, however I hit some issues. I believe the main issue was with my timing of pollination, so I'm looking for some tips! Here is a run-through of the procedure I followed last year:
Before I'd leave for work in the morning (~6am or so) I'd collect some flowers that were just starting to open (anthers still closed). I would remove the anthers and place them in a shallow dish. I'd then set the dish in the kitchen with the ceiling fan on to dry the pollen.
Once I got back home for the night (~8pm) I would do my pollination. I would select flowers that were still closed, but due to open the next morning. I emasculated said flowers and applied pollen that I had collected earlier in the day. The flower was then tagged to designate the cross.
Pod set using this method was extremely poor. I knew that this probably wasn't the best way to do my crosses, but due to my work schedule it was the best I could manage. (Quick note: all plants were C.annuum). Now it was quite hot here in north central Texas last summer so that probably had a hand in the poor pod set, but the plants were still producing some pods that were self pollinated. I did manage to set a few pods but some interesting things happened. First, if the pod did manage to set, it just sat there for about 3-4 days before it started growing. Normally if a pod sets it starts growing and elongating fairly quickly. Mine just sat there the same size initially, but eventually started growing as usual. I let them fully mature and collected the seed, but I came across another issue. Most of the seeds were obviously no good. The size, shape and color were fine but the centers were sunken and shriveled. I collected about 65 seeds in total and nearly all had this look with the exception of a very few.
Jump to this spring, I planted all of the seeds from my crossing efforts and..................nothing. Not one single seed germinated. I started them at the same time as all my other (non hybrid) seeds, indoors under lights, same soil, and watering. Nada. The non-hybrid seeds were up and going in 2 weeks or less. I knew most of the seeds were duds but planted them anyway just to give them the benefit of the doubt. I gave them 2 full months in the seed starting area in the off chance they were "late bloomers" but alas, nothing.
So, after going back through my notes from last years growing season I've come up with a few possible reasons for my troubles..
1. Pollinating at the wrong time. Perhaps I was applying pollen to flowers whose pistils were not yet receptive?
2. The seeds that failed had one thing in common: the pollen parent. In this case Peter Pepper.
On a side note it appears that I DID get some natural hybrids from Peter Pepper X Anaheim. I planted out seeds from peter pepper pods I collected last fall and some definitely do not look like a true peter pepper. My Anaheim plants were growing next to the peters, and as I did not cover the plants, this was to be expected. Not that I'm upset about it, since I was trying to cross these plants and failed. I'll get some pics of them and post them later on today. Kinda interesting looking. Shape is quite similar to an Anaheim, not quite as long but are a good bit larger than a true peter pepper. Some are slightly wrinkled but not to the extent of PP. Perhaps the most interesting thing of all is that nearly all of the pods taper down to an indented tip that sort of look like a pair of butt cheeks lol. That's about the best way I can think to describe it. I have 3 plants that show this type of growth and from what I've read, the F1 offspring tend to look similar to one another. I'm in the process of doing some controlled self crosses (covering with netting) and will plant those seeds out next spring. If these plants are in fact hybrids, then I should see a pretty wide range of traits in the F2 kids.
But getting back to the main problem... what would be considered the best procedure to get more pods to set from my breeding efforts? I've been trying out different methods this year and so far I've not had much luck. I do have a few pods set, but they are exhibiting the same issue I ran into last year...sit there for 3-4 days before actually growing. Because of this I'm not putting much faith into any seeds that come out of those pods. I'll still plant them out and hope for the best though. One method I've started trying the past few days is going out at night and finding which flowers are due to open the next morning, emasculate them, and the next day pollinate them with fresh pollen. Hasn't been long enough to tell if his method will work very well, and also too we've just started a stretch of hot weather, at or near 100 during the day and lower 80's at night so that's not going to help. We've got a cooldown next week so hopefully I can take advantage of it.
Thanks in advance for any tips! I'm still trying to figure out the finer details of pepper breeding. Most of my breeding experience is with daylilies, which were a snap to breed, but the results tended to be more chaotic since you were dealing with hybrid X hybrid crosses. But not knowing what exactly you would get was part of the fun!
from Weatherford!
.
. But the more I got into reading about various pepper traits and seeing the results others were getting from their crosses, the more interested I became in breeding them. Even if I never get a bigger peter, it's still fun to see all the variation along the way! 