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breeding Black Pearl Cross

crazy8

crazy8

Some of you may or may not be familiar with my plants. I have three Black Pearls, one of which is a cross. I got the seeds from someone last year and one of those three Black Pearls was abviously a product of a cross pollination. Here is the image...
IMG_2162.jpg

Im wondering if any of you have any thoughts as to what it may have been crossed with. Im asking now because I noticed this morning that there are a few of them that have turned a very nice fiery orange and now im starting to get all excited.:onfire: Not sure if the orange color is its final color or not either so Im not sure if I should pick any of them. I am assuming since Black Pearls go from black to red, that maybe on this cross, orange will be its mature color. Any thoughts on my conundrum?
 
I don't think the black pearls are completely stable to start with. The first year they were introduced, several people commented on the differences between plants. They are also only f8s, and from what I understand, it usually takes several more generations for them to really become stable.
On the other hand, it could be a cross but guessing at what its crossed with would be very difficult
 
So to have a more stable Black pearl, should I be taking seeds from them for next year then? The other two look amazing and I see no defects with them of any kind so I thought of cutting them back for the winter.
 
Just save seeds or take cuttings from the good ones and if the other has any desired traits then save seeds from it too.
 
So this leads me to another question I have never asked but have always been curious about. If you have two perfectly looking plants and both are doing great, does it help at all to pollinate one with the other and plant the seeds from that?


I dont know if this help to figure out what this Black pearl was crossed with but when comparing it to "normal" Black pearls, its fruits are the size of peas some even a little bigger. Obviously as stated before they are a very nice orange color and as you see in the pic they do not grow in clumps as they should and the plant overall is green. So would it be safe to assume that the plant that this was cross bread with has...

Green foliage
Orange small fruits when mature
Doesn't grow in clusters

Is this a way of diagnosing a potential cross or is it much more than that? If this is correct then perhaps something like Pequin could be a possible culprit in this situation. I do have pequin seeds but dont remember if they cam from the same source but its very possible.

My brother and I might taste test these next weekend. Eating a pepper off the plant like that is something I have never done except for a VERY tiny nibble of a cayenne so I am going to make sure we have milk ready. But if it ends up being good heat and flavor im wondering if trying to stabilize this cross would be good.
 
For those of you who may be interested, here is a pic I took this morning of what its looking like now.
IMG00195-20090911-0717.jpg
 
I still think the final color will be red. Let us know how it's changing.
I have a few black pearl crosses that I think are pretty cool too.
 
Yeah I have still been kicking around the idea of trying to stabilize it. It has a ton of pods on it and looks kinda different. This will be one of the plants I winterize so we will see how that goes and how it does next year. I will be sure to let you know if they turn red.
 
Well ABurningMouth you were right, they have turned red so looksl ike they might be good to eat now. That one pepper that my finger is next to in the pic, will be cut open to see if there is any seeds. The other ones look to small to have seed but we may find out. Also this coming weekend my brother and I are going to taste them. If the heats good and more importantly the flavor is good, then I will keep the plant/seed around if not....well then off to the trash it goes. I will keep you guys posted and let you know what comes of it.
 
crazy8, did you get these seeds from me? i can't recall who i sent to. if it was me, my black pearl was around red habs, bhut jolokia, annnnd maybe something else i can't recall now.
 
I dont think I did. I thought I got them off of someone from the "Chillis Galore" Let me go back in all my PMs and see if you and i have traded in here.

UPDATE: Doesnt look like you and I have done any exchanging in the past, according to my records in my PM history. That would have been nice though huh? A little tiny pepper with the heat of a Bhut or Hab.
 
Well I went to my brothers today and we tried these peppers. I ate the one with my finger next to it and he had one of similar size. HOLY $#!T were they hot. Now for a lot of you these might have been childs play but my brother got instant hickups after swallowing it and our tongues were on fire. We were in pain and it was quite the ride. I wasn't a big fan of the flavor though Im not one to eat peppers but Im not sure if I will keep it.
 
Yea I dont think I will be keeping the plant though. Very interesting cross though. If was kept it sounded like my friend might be interested but Im not going to keep it for my self. I will keep the peppers I get from it this season in case I need them for anything.
 
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