Good stuff Kennylay!
A few other TLDR's
* Capsicum species have perfect (hermaphroditic) flowers, with male and female reproductive organs present in a single flower, which makes self-fertilization their major mating system (Pickersgill, 1997).
* The plants tend to self-pollinate prior to or during flower opening and the exposure of receptive stigmas to potential pollinators often occurs after self-pollination (Melo et al., 2014).
* Different studies have shown that the cross-pollination rate in Capsicum is highly variable, ranging from 2 to 90% (Tanksley, 1984; Pickersgill, 1997). For example, in some cultivars of C. frutescens the possibility of cross-pollination is increased by morphological traits such as long styles, and it is reported to vary from 9 to 38% (Odlandand Porter, 1941).
* The rate of natural cross-pollination is influenced by several factors, including genotype, geographical location, climatic conditions, predominant pollinators and spacing between plants (Tanksley, 1984).
* [In this study of annuums] Each plot was composed of a row of 20 [homozygotic non-pungent] plants spaced 1.0 m apart. [pungent] seedlings were then transplanted to the six rows to the left and six rows to the right of [the non pungent seedlings] at increasing distances of 1.2; 2.4; 3.6; 4.8; 6.0, and 7.2 meters. [thus no non pungent plant in the study had a pungent plant within 1.2 meters of it.]
* 10.8% of pods had at least 1 hybrid seed.
So, this has me thinking:
- how early relative to flower opening the stigmas become receptive and pollen is produced is highly important. A tendency toward those occurring prior to flower opening or during would hugely reduce the potential for cross-pollination.
- If the flowers are not producing pollen yet are opening to expose receptive stigmas, and you don't have a row of homozygotic plants nearby, you're going to get 100% crosses. It seems this could result in a high percentage of crosses for smaller growers when conditions aren't proper for the production of pollen.
- Annuums have generally been highly cultivated and selected for consistent traits, so wouldn't that mean that a trait they have been selected for would be to avoid cross-pollination based on variables such as length of style and early self-pollination? One might expect then that the less cultivated a variety is the more likely it is to cross-pollinate.
