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With all these new hot peppers...

U

UltraZelda64

I've noticed an explosion of hot pepper cultivars lately, especially supposed super-hots. I've also read about some of them (especially those that have took the Bhut Jolokia's throne as the Guinness World Record holder) are hybrids. Some of them, including some 7 Pod strains, I thought were stabilized... but a while back in another thread I read that they're actually hybrids.

So... how do you know if a plant is a hybrid? I mean, normally it would have hybrid in the name, I thought... but the reason I thought many of these hybrids were, eh... not hybrids in the first place is because they had "hybrid" nowhere in the name or description. So what is this? Horrible marketing? Outright deception? Or is "hybrid" being used both for unstable and stable hybrids, and no one is distinguishing between the two?

I have to wonder how many ornamental pepper plants, for example, are unstable vs. stable hybrids, and they usually don't say "Hybrid" in the name to distinguish them.
 
They usually say f1 or hybrid unless its someone trying to scam you with the newest viper/infinity cross. A lot of these sellers don't even truly know how pepper breeding works or even what a hybrid is :(
 
UltraZelda64 said:
I've noticed an explosion of hot pepper cultivars lately, especially supposed super-hots. I've also read about some of them (especially those that have took the Bhut Jolokia's throne as the Guinness World Record holder) are hybrids. Some of them, including some 7 Pod strains, I thought were stabilized... but a while back in another thread I read that they're actually hybrids.

So... how do you know if a plant is a hybrid? I mean, normally it would have hybrid in the name, I thought... but the reason I thought many of these hybrids were, eh... not hybrids in the first place is because they had "hybrid" nowhere in the name or description. So what is this? Horrible marketing? Outright deception? Or is "hybrid" being used both for unstable and stable hybrids, and no one is distinguishing between the two?

I have to wonder how many ornamental pepper plants, for example, are unstable vs. stable hybrids, and they usually don't say "Hybrid" in the name to distinguish them.
Click to expand...

The name doesn't necessarily mean anything. If a grower hasn't isolated the plants from other peppers, and those peppers have cross pollinated with other peppers....the progeny are going to be hybrids.

And yes, in some cases the word hybrid is used when a cultivar isn't truly a hybrid as a marketing tactic because some people automatically associate the word hybrid with improved vigor, etc.
 
That's the way I thought it worked, but it's still confusing for some reason. I rarely (more like, never) see "F1" or similar in names. I only occasionally see "Hybrid"--one example is the Biker Billy Hybrid jalapeno.
 
I grow the Biker Billy(likely not really a hybrid), super chilli hybrid, sahuaro hybrid, big chile hybrid and many others. When they say hybrid they almost always mean f1, which is the true hybrid stage.

Check out all the hybrids in The Chileman's database, there are pages full and most are listed as f1s
http://www.thechileman.org/results.php?find=hybrid&heat=Any&origin=Any&genus=Any&chile=1&submit=Search
 
POTAWIE said:
I grow the Biker Billy(likely not really a hybrid), super chilli hybrid, sahuaro hybrid, big chile hybrid and many others. When they say hybrid they almost always mean f1, which is the true hybrid stage.

Check out all the hybrids in The Chileman's database, there are pages full and most are listed as f1s
http://www.thechileman.org/results.php?find=hybrid&heat=Any&origin=Any&genus=Any&chile=1&submit=Search
Click to expand...
That's interesting on the Biker Billy. Wouldn't that be false advertising?

I'll check out the Chile Man database though, I never looked through the actual hybrid section (didn't even know there was one).
 
Yes on the false advertising for the Biker Billy if they are indeed not hybrids. I believe they call them hybrids so people will buy seeds every year and not save their own

No the chileman's database doesn't have a hybrid section, just use hybrid as a search term like in the link above
 
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