I'm amending this first post to include the techniques as we've discussed in the thread below:
Plant/Flower Isolation techniques.
Plant/Flower Isolation techniques.
- Distance Isolation : seperating plants by a significant distance to avoid crossing. This is difficult to do for most home/hobby growers the recommended distance is 1/2 mile or more between plants.
- Caging isolation: create a mesh cage around the plant or individual flowers/branches using Tulle fabric or Organza bags. This is probably the most popular method, and is used by commercial seed banks such as Chili Pepper Institute (see below).
- Flower sealing: use gel caps (vitamin type) or elmers glue to seal the flowers after they are full size but before they open. The glue or caps pop or fall off when the pod develops. People have reported mixed results with these methods, such as bud drop and problems with rain melting gel caps, or washing off the glue. YMMV.
I wrote to the NMSU Chile Pepper Institute and asked what procedures they follow. They replied that they use the caging method and sent me this article which details their method of isolation.