Ya, but growing unwanted crosses can be a big waste of time and space. You likely won't even know there is a problem for 4+ monthsIdc about cross polination seeds arnt that hard to find
Just try to grow out as many f2s as you possibly canI have enjoyed some of my unknown crosses this year. I plan to take seeds from them and see what next year brings. I have more bees in my yard than all of Delaware but I am to blame for having a butterfly, hummingbird and insect sanctuary.
Capsicum flowers are in the group of open flowers, with hexose (glucose and fructose) rich nectar, although sucrose has not been found (Rabinowitch et al. 1993; Roldán Serrano and Guerra-Sanz 2006). Furthermore, capsicum flowers tend to produce relatively large amounts of nectar, suggesting that cross-pollination by pollen vectors may be favoured (Rabinowitch et al. 1993).
The few studies of pollination of greenhouse capsicum with different pollinators, such as the solitary bees (Osmia cornifrons), bumble bees (Bombus terrestris) or the honey bee (Apis mellifera) have found that insect pollination increased fruit weight and the percentage of extra-large and large fruit compared with self-pollinated fruit (Roldán Serrano and Guerra-Sanz 2006; Jarlan et al. 1997). Bees increase the number of seeds in capsicum fruit and thus the fruit attracts more assimilates, making it grow faster and bigger. The presence of honey bees has shown to be responsible for reduced deformities in fruit as well as more rapid fruit set leading to shorter harvesting periods (Shipp et al. 1994) (Table 2).
Table 2 Mean values for fruit assessment variables that were significantly affected by bumble bee pollination for green house sweet pepper (Shipp et al. 1994)
TreatmentFruit weight (g)Days to harvestFruit width (mm)Whole fruit volume (cm[sup]3[/sup])Seed weight (g)Bee pollinated177.672.980.4318.32.1Non-bee pollinated167.577.077.9303.61.8
That is the plan for the best of the best.Ya, but growing unwanted crosses can be a big waste of time and space. You likely won't even know there is a problem for 4+ months
Just try to grow out as many f2s as you possibly can