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pics Capsicum flexuosum

Hi Guy's

We just had a week where the sun god smiled on us blue sky and bright sun highs of 13oC to 15oC :halo: But..........with a constant icy wind ! Anyway been sitting out writing my chillie notes in my book watching my babies that I've been hardening off enjoying the sunshine 😎

A mix of capsicum pubescens 7 varieties this season, capsicum annuum x3 Ring of fire I'm trying outdoors (first time) a few "spare" capsicum chinense rather than put them in the compost !

And this little fella the wild cold tolerant capsicum flexuosum................which I grew purely out of curiosity having heard of its cold tolerance. Sadly from the 10 seeds I only got one plant (believe you need two to get fruit 🤔 not 100%) so I've just sown 10 more seeds in two batches of 5 using two different methods to improve my chances 🤞

I have to say this little fella has proved to be one of those plants you get strangely attached to no idea why but I do find it simply beautiful 😊

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Just potted it up its been a slow grower compared to any variety I've grown before but I love the leaf colour shape even texture 🤗


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Recently it's started developing "leaf hairs" similar to capsicum pubescens but not on the stem from the side its more akin to a miniature tree ......nothing outstanding or spectacular but strangely satisfying............😊

Stephen
 
I never heard of this before, i had some wild peppers in the past that were very late producers... Simply put, in the season i have here was not pong enough for them to bear fruits.
I am very interested about your results with this pepper, so please keep us up to date.
 
Does anyone know if someone has successfully crossed this with other peppers to give some cold-weather resistance to, say, a jalapeno?
 
Does anyone know if someone has successfully crossed this with other peppers to give some cold-weather resistance to, say, a jalapeno?
It's in a clade of it's own and not known to cross with any other species. I've personally managed to get F1 seeds several times when crossing it with various other species, the seeds are never viable though.

Even if it did cross with C.annuum you aren't easily going to get cold resistance into a Jalapeño.

Firstly, C.flexuosum isn't indestructible, it takes damage to leaves and branches but it's root ball is pretty tough. So you're not going to get a Jalapeño that just keeps growing with no impact.

Secondly, there is a massive size differential between the pod size of a Jalapeño and a C.flexuosum. Small round pods are dominant, so when you cross you are going to lose size and shape. You'd then need to backcross many times back into the Jalapeño to recover pod size, each time you do that you'd end up with less C.flexuosum. Keeping just the bit of the C.flexuosum gene pool that you want which is related to cold tolerance would be a tough one to work with and to prove in each generation.
 
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