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breeding Infertile Cross F1 Baccatum x Chinense

KrakenPeppers

KrakenPeppers

One of my crosses I most looked forward too this season seems to have hit an issue.. I grew two lovely F1 plants, They grew fast and tall like a Baccatum, and had thick stems and branches and the characteristic chinense folliage. All seemed to be going well and the plants were outgrowing my other plants hands down and I was excited about the possible results.. HOWEVER....
 
Even though the plant grew great flowers, heaps of pollen.. non of them would take.. So I started hand pollinating them to make sure they got a good hit of pollen.. and still nothing !!!..
 
I even tried to use the pollen too  cross onto a few other varieties to make three and four way crosses but those flowers all dropped too...
 
So now I'm thinking the cross has resulted in infertile plants.. Even though everythinb I read says Baccatum and Chinense are a normaly germinating cross, I seem to have had no luck =( 
 
Anyone else have these issues with crosses in the past ??? Especialy on crosses that should have no issues ??
 
Sorry to hear about this problem. I`ve only grown 3 or 4 chinense x baccatum crosses and not had infertility issues so far, they will be F4 this season. I`m not sure whether they were made chinense x baccatum or baccatum x chinense, so maybe that makes a difference?
I have a new one to grow at F1 this season, so will report on that one. 
 
Nigel said:
Sorry to hear about this problem. I`ve only grown 3 or 4 chinense x baccatum crosses and not had infertility issues so far, they will be F4 this season. I`m not sure whether they were made chinense x baccatum or baccatum x chinense, so maybe that makes a difference?
I have a new one to grow at F1 this season, so will report on that one. 
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​Thanks for the reply Nigel... I thought it might of been a possible Mother x Father issue but then I thought that that might result in less germinating seeds. But as the plants were so strong I don't see that to be an issue.. I will continue to try and get them to take, if they do (eventually) I imagine the F2 will probably have less issues.. If they podded up as well as they grew and flowered they would be incredible producers.
 
Ill try and post some pics of the flowers and plants later today .
 
Chance they could be sterile. My Carbonero was sterile, only pods it produced was when I cross polinated it with butch T yellow.

Hopefully my b x c crosses produce. So far no pods though.
 
D3monic said:
Chance they could be sterile. My Carbonero was sterile, only pods it produced was when I cross polinated it with butch T yellow.

Hopefully my b x c crosses produce. So far no pods though.
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Don't say that to me D3monic, I only posted this so I would get some positive re-enforcement that they would be perfectly fine and just to wait them out !!!
 
LOL.. Thanks for your post mate, seems like I might be crying a little when I snap those bad boys at the end of the season if they don't produce =(..... 
 
D3monic said:
If one starts to produce you can always use its pollen or worse case back cross to the plant whose genetics you wish it to favor
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Checked again this morning.. Nothing.. I'm thinking of trying to pollinate the flowers with a few varieties, see if any take.. Backcross it to one of the parents like you said as well.. Might be the pollen s sterile but the flower ovum isn't.
 
UPDATE :  It's looking promising.. I have had 3 out of the 4 crosses onto the plant start showing some little bumps of pods, this is a great sign that I might be able to capatalise on the cross and the plants... Will need atleast another week to confirm but it's looking very promising at the moment.
 
Now I just need to back cross it too a parent and make some other wonderful mixes ..   Updates to come..
 
Winner Winner Chicken Dinner..... The cross pollen onto the flowers worked, I can definetly see 3 little pods starting to form..
 
Tomorrow I will cross them back to the parents and make some other mixes while I'm there.. Try and get as many flowers to set as I can... =D
 
Now the question of wether or not the seeds they make are sterile !! =P
 
Update:  The plant has started fertilising its own pods... It must be a maturity thing or something.. but the plant has begun fertilising its own pods finally... Have a dozen or so self fertilised pods... thank god =) Can't wait to see what pops
 
Probably has more to do with temperature and humidity. Even if the plant was infertile, it would still produce pods. The seeds it produced would be the infertile part of the equation.
 
I crossed a chinense with an annum. The F1 produced pods no problem! However, after three years of overwintering I am yet to find a seed in the pods :( They backcrossed fine however. I'm in the process of crossing the backcrosses with the F1 to see if I can get anything to produce seeds (totally unscientifically ;) ).
 
I still think there's a fertility issue.. Out of two 4 foot high plants, they have probably had 200 flowers each, I've had the ones I crossed pod up, and only about 5 others naturally.. The pods have been very slow to develope and are still quiet small.. If humidity etc was the issue it would be wierd as the chinense and other baccatums had no issues.. Not long left in the season and the pods are still looking only half way done
 
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