chinense Aji Lemondrop x Burning Bush Habanero (Baccatum x Chinense)

Winegums · May 10, 2018

Hey guys, been a while since I posted! I recently found out that my cross attempt between Lemon Drop and Burning Bush worked. I grew out three F1 plants over the Winter from the cross bred pod I started last May, so far two have set pods with another just stating to bud. The flowers lack the Baccatum green and are pendulum in nature, I've also seen no hint of the pods turning upright. If it were following the mother plant genetics it would have all the classic Aji Lemon drop traits which it doesn't thankfully!

The plants have a curious mix of growth characteristics which is varied between the three but is decidedly not Baccatum nor is it Habanero. The node spacing is more like Lemondrop and the branch structure/angles are more like a Habanero. The leaves do not scream Chinense to me immediately, they're less wrinkled than I would expect and have a duller tone to them.

They are prolific, the few blooms I was going to photograph were already set before I could get to them. There's many more buds on the way which is good as I hope to send out some F2 seeds to people who want to help with selecting a pheno. There's no other pepper plants around that are blooming yet so I'm hoping that these stayed isolated.

I have my fingers crossed for a light coloured pod with medium heat and good flavour. I think the genetics are right to produce an a very light peach colour or a nearly white pod, but time will tell. It might be something that pops up in F2 and is the desired result of this cross. I will do my best to keep this thread updated as things develop.

Pod from Plant 1

Pods from Plant 2

juanitos · May 10, 2018

nice, look forward to update with ripe pod pics

b3rnd · May 10, 2018

Very cool! I love Lemon Drop crosses. I did a Brazilian Starfish x Lemon Drop. I'll be following this topic!

YAMracer754 · May 10, 2018

Send me a PM anytime if you want to breed out those f2s for phenos, is there some resources on here that give the rundown on how to crossbrred/selectively breed and info on stabilizing the genetics?

Sent from my XT1565 using Tapatalk

Winegums · May 10, 2018

juanitos said:
nice, look forward to update with ripe pod pics

It should be early June when things are ripe.

b3rnd said:
Very cool! I love Lemon Drop crosses. I did a Brazilian Starfish x Lemon Drop. I'll be following this topic!

Do you have pictures or a thread link? if so please post some. That would be Baccatum x Baccatum right?

The thing that interests me most about this cross is that it is a Baccatum x Chinense. I've found very few examples of the two being crossed except Aji Painapple (which is the reason I found this forum in the first place). I had a lot of trouble getting the pollen from the Burning Bush to work with the Aji Lemon drop blooms with all but 3 out of my 12 attempts producing pods. From those pods only 2 of them contained viable seeds, one had shriveled failed seeds on the placenta.

If anyone can show me some other Baccatum x Chinense or vice versa I would love to see them.

YAMracer754 said:
Send me a PM anytime if you want to breed out those f2s for phenos, is there some resources on here that give the rundown on how to crossbrred/selectively breed and info on stabilizing the genetics?

Sent from my XT1565 using Tapatalk

If you google "cross breeding peppers" there's several detailed guides that explain F1, F2 and the following generations. There's also a lot of videos out there about it as well.

http://the-biologist-is-in.blogspot.ca/2015/05/the-color-of-peppers.html
http://the-biologist-is-in.blogspot.ca/2015/11/the-color-of-peppers-2.html

http://www.thechileman.org/guide_crossing_peppers.php

b3rnd · May 10, 2018

Winegums said:
Do you have pictures or a thread link? if so please post some. That would be Baccatum x Baccatum right?

The thing that interests me most about this cross is that it is a Baccatum x Chinense. I've found very few examples of the two being crossed except Aji Painapple (which is the reason I found this forum in the first place). I had a lot of trouble getting the pollen from the Burning Bush to work with the Aji Lemon drop blooms with all but 3 out of my 12 attempts producing pods. From those pods only 2 of them contained viable seeds, one had shriveled failed seeds on the placenta.

If anyone can show me some other Baccatum x Chinense or vice versa I would love to see them.

Yeah, that's a Baccatum x Baccatum. I like interspecific crosses, but I'm not a big fan of the Chinense taste. I love the diversity of the pods though; the colours, shapes etc. I'd consider making a Baccatum x Chinense cross if I can think of something cool.

I have a picture of one in my glog, but there's not a lot to see. It hasn't even forked yet. When I have something to show I'll share it!

BDBeatz · May 10, 2018

thats a nice cross combo :dance:

isn't the burning bush very productive like a Tabasco?
Looking forward to your new pepper updates

Winegums · May 10, 2018

BDBeatz said:
thats a nice cross combo
isn't the burning bush very productive like a Tabasco?
Looking forward to your new pepper updates

It's about as productive as any other Habanero is. So I guess very productive would be right.

I'm hoping that it's a good cross.

Crispee-FL · May 10, 2018

Very nice, looking forward to the end results!

Winegums · May 10, 2018

Crispee-FL said:
Very nice, looking forward to the end results!

Me too! This early in the pod development it looks like it's going to have some significant lobes.

karoo · May 11, 2018

Excellent cross.

I have a Lemon drop X Malawi Piquant ( Peppadew).
Bright red like the peppadew , but with Lemon drop heat and flavour and larger than both parents.

b3rnd · May 11, 2018

karoo said:
Excellent cross.

I have a Lemon drop X Malawi Piquant ( Peppadew).
Bright red like the peppadew , but with Lemon drop heat and flavour and larger than both parents.

Cool! Are there any pics of that on the forum?

karoo · May 11, 2018

http://thehotpepper.com/topic/65338-karoo-20172018-glog/page-5

Winegums · May 11, 2018

karoo said:
Excellent cross.

I have a Lemon drop X Malawi Piquant ( Peppadew).
Bright red like the peppadew , but with Lemon drop heat and flavour and larger than both parents.

karoo said:
http://thehotpepper.com/topic/65338-karoo-20172018-glog/page-5

Thanks! I took my time considering what cross would actually be worth pursuing which lead me into doing a few hours of research on genetics. I then wanted to figure out how the colour genetics worked so I found some more stuff to look at. Having a yellow and at least an orange or white plant were a must to result in the colour range I'm seeking. So by the time I had figured out what I was going to do I really only had Burning Bush and Lemon Drop plants that were going to work. Another cross I'm considering doing this year is Scotch Bonnet or Yellow Brainstrain x Pink Habanero. My main goal is to have some not so hot varieties with excellent flavour and light colour.

That's a very pretty cross you have, I like that the pods maintain the translucent look of the Lemon drop. The shape at the bottom is curious, I've yet to figure out how the pod shape is decided.

dragonsfire · May 11, 2018

Crossing with a Burning Bush would be great, used to grow BB, very sharp heat , flavout not great, used it mostly for heat so adding another chile to it would be great

Winegums · May 11, 2018

dragonsfire said:
Crossing with a Burning Bush would be great, used to grow BB, very sharp heat , flavout not great, used it mostly for heat so adding another chile to it would be great

I find Burning Bush to have a better flavour than the standard orange Habanero and golden Habanero. I like the sweetness followed by the crisp burn that it gives me at the back of my mouth.

I can't wait to try out this cross, I'd love if the tangy Lemon drop flavours were to mix with the Habanero taste and heat. I have a Citrus mango BBQ wing recipe that is begging for a pod like that.

Winegums · May 13, 2018

Things are beginning to shape up, they look like baby habaneros with the main difference being additional striations at the top of the pod and occasionally along the sides. The striations are definitely from the lemon drop as burning bush has a smooth top.

The plants are continuing to set pods so I'll watch to see if the shape changes. I have the first pods on the plant labeled while it's still isolated.

This is plant 2 which only has this one pod so far. It looks sdifferent than the pods on plant 1. It has a slight bottle nose like a Lemon drop.

Winegums · May 17, 2018

Here's some Burning Bush pods next to an Aji Lemon Drop for comparision.

And these are some newer pictures of the pods, If I didn't know any better I'd think they were bonnets.

dragonsfire · May 17, 2018

The Burning Bush shapes do vary a bit funny enough. My Bush from a couple years ago. Crossing them would be great

Winegums · May 17, 2018

The pod shape does vary a little bit but they at least all have some sort of point on the bottom from my memory. Perhaps it's too early to tell if they will develop one or not, usually I can see it even on baby pods.

This is the mother, it was an incredible plant.

Looking back at these pictures I realize that both parent plants were really heavy producers. For some reason I had forgotten the massive amount of pods the Burning Bush produced.