breeding Crosses

There is so much great info on these forums. In my case, growing peppers is a side hobby. I don't check PH or soil temperature. I don't buy expensive products. I buy good seeds and plant them in some decent soil/dirt and add some plant food occasionally. If I get an unexpected late freeze, I cover the seedlings with a mini plastic "green-house". They get water when it hasn't rained in a while, etc. My real job is so detail-oriented that I'm not up to being perfect like most of y'all.

Now... an offshoot of that is I don't measure 2" apart for seeds, etc. I basically toss a bunch of seeds into somewhat fertile soil and check back later. I don't even do the in-door seedling prep.

And, you know what... I get great peppers and tomatoes every year! That's basically all I grow, but 7-10 varieties each.

Now, after my self-indulgent background that you don't care about, my question:

I am far from Gregor Mendel... but is my practice of sort of wildass planting and mixing of seeds producing cross-species? On another thread, someone crowed about crossing a jalapeno with a naga.... how is that done? I might be producing a bunch of new peppers.

yeah, kind of I guess.. if they stay really close when they are out in the yard/garden... and if you keep most of your seeds.. it is pretty slim, but if you get any peppers this year that don't look like they should.. you might have a cross... myself, I am just going to create a bunch of random crosses, and started with the plants that already have flowers on them.. like right now I have a pepper growing on the Bulgarian Carrot plant that is a cross of that and a pretty purple pepper.. I had one with a cross of a Red Caribbean, but it is just "frozen in time with a bunch of other peppers on that plant.. so not sure, I might have over fertilized it and it is just kind of frozen for now.. but I transplanted it and hopefully they will all ripen and continue to grow..

so yes you could be, but it is kind of unlikely that you will get a plant that is a cross unless you did it on purpose and kept track of which pepper it actually was, and planted seeds from that pepper... I can't wait to get a bunch of crosses... next year will be great lol.. I'm gonna have wayyy to many peppers.. might have to have to reduce the number of tomato plants my mom has in the garden to make room for some more pepper crosses haha

to make it quick....

you have plant a (jalapeno for example) and plant B cayenne pepper

if flower of plant A is polenised with the polen of the plant B you will still have a jalapeno on plant A but the seeds in this pepper MIGHT or CAN have some hybrid traits of a jalapeno / cayenne (might not also) so you would have to re plant those seeds from the pepper that has been polenised and grow it to see if you have the new frankenstein (you wont see it on the first pepper only from the seed of the cross polenise pepper)

some people force a cross polenisation. they strip the flower (before it's producing polen) of the polen producing organ and keep the "male" side only and use polen from the other plant on that "male" organ. if polenisation is good it will grow a pepper. they will keep the seeds and start those seeds to find a hydrid (generation f1)
and from those new plant usually you keep the peper you like and reproduce over multiple generation to isolate the trait of the new hybrid.
take about 8 or more generation to have a "stable" variety that will be pretty constant over the future generation.

What hammerfall said! Just take the pollen from both varieties and pollinate the flowers by hand using a small paint brush

+1 on what Hammer said