ChilliCrosser Crosses

I've opted to keep details of my crossing projects in this dedicated thread rather than include it in my 2021 Glog

Edited this post to summarise what crosses I've got and where they are at, I will try and keep it current. Dates in status column reflect when I've updated the information not when the cross was actually made. I've not included every historic cross I've ever made and ignores anything where I haven't got at least F1 seeds unless I thought it was useful to record. Information might be useful to someone at some point.

ChilliCrosser Cross	Current Status
X001 : Bolivian Rainbow x Cheiro Roxa (C.Annuum x C.Chinense)	16/8/21: F1 seeds, not grown on yet.
X002 : Fijian Bongo x Cheiro Roxa (C.Chinense x C.Chinense)	16/8/21: Only had a single F1 seed even though this was an intraspecific, strange result and the seed didn't germinate. End of cross project.
X003 : Brazilian Starfish Red x [CGN21500 x 7 Pot Barrackpore] (C.Baccatum x C.Chinense)	16/8/21: Had plenty of F1 seeds from the original F0 pods. First attempt to grow an F1 was ended when weather finished off the plant before any fruiting. Currently growing four F1 plants outdoors in the 2021 season. All looking healthy but concerned I've not seen any fruit setting yet. Possibly sterile but reserving judgement until the end of the season.
X004 : Tasmanian Habanero x Giant White Habanero (C.Chinense x C.Chinense)	16/8/21: Growing F2 plants, some initial pods setting.
X005 : Fidalgo Roxa x Giant White Habanero (C.Chinense x C.Chinense)	16/8/21: Growing F2 plants, no pods set yet.
X006 : Fidalgo Roxa x Fijian Bongo (C.Chinense x C.Chinense)	16/8/21: Growing F2 plants, some initial pods setting.
X007 : Fijian Bongo x Aji Jobito (C.Chinense x C.Chinense)	16/8/21: Growing F2 plants, some initial pods setting.
X008 : Fijian Bongo x Brazilian Starfish Yellow (C.Chinense x C.Baccatum)	16/8/21: F1 seeds.
X009 : Brazilian Starfish Yellow x C.Flexuosum (C.Baccatum x C.Flexuosum)	16/8/21: Very small F0 pod set but zero F1 seeds. Inside of pod looked healthy. Lack of F1 seeds could have been due to pod size. One for me to try again at some point I think.
X010 : Brazilian Starfish Yellow x [CGN21500 x Grao De Bode] (C.Baccatum x C.Chinense)	16/8/21: Had 4 F1 seeds from a single F0 pod, only 1 germinated. F1 plant taken out by a storm. End of cross project.
X011 : Giant White Habanero x Fijian Bongo (C.Chinense x C.Chinense)	16/8/21: Summary of wide range of phenotypes from F2 here. Currently have F3 seeds for all phenotypes and have been growing a batch of F3 plants for the red phenotypes outdoors this season, waiting on F3 pods from these so hope to have F4 seeds this year. Most likely to also grow forward the Apricot Peach phenos to stabilise.
X012 : Brazilian Starfish Yellow x Tasmanian Habanero (C.Baccatum x C.Chinense)	16/8/21: Had an F0 pod but no F1 seeds. End of cross project.
X013 : White Bhut Jolokia JW x Variegated Jalapeno (C.Chinense x C.Annuum)	16/8/21: F1 seeds, not grown on yet.
X014 : White Bhut Jolokia JW x Sweet Apple Kambe (C.Chinense x C.Annuum)	16/8/21: Single F1 seed, not grown on yet.
X015 : White Bhut Jolokia JW x Scotch Brains XCP Chocolate (C.Chinense x C.Chinense)	16/8/21: F1 seeds, not grown on yet.
X016 : White Bhut Jolokia JW x Brazilian Starfish Red (C.Chinense x C.Baccatum)	16/8/21: Had 2 F1 seeds from a small F0 pod, both failed to germinate. End of cross project.
X017 : White Bhut Jolokia JW x Sugar Rush Stripey (C.Chinense x C.Baccatum)	16/8/21: Had 2 F1 seeds from a small F0 pod, both failed to germinate. End of cross project.
X018 : Brazilian Starfish Red x Peppacream (C.Baccatum x C.Baccatum)	16/8/21: Started as an accidental cross. Starting to get ripe F1 pods with F2 seeds. Super tasty!
X019 : Clavo Peach x Sugar Rush Stripey (C.Chinense x C.Baccatum)	16/8/21: Had 3 F0 pods, each with healthy looking F1 seeds. Started germination for some F1 seeds from each of the F0 pods on 14/8/21, waiting to see if viable.
X020 : Scarlett's Chilli x Indian Chilli Bullet (C.Annuum x C.Annuum)	16/8/21: F1 seeds, not grown on yet.
X021 : Sugar Rush Stripey x White Bhut Jolokia JW (C.Baccatum x C.Chinense)	16/8/21: First F0 pod was unhealthy inside, only 1 F1 seed formed which still looked non-viable, tried to germinate it anyway but no surprises when it failed. Have another F0 pod ripening, waiting to see if that's any better.
X022 : Clavo Peach x Brazilian Starfish Yellow (C.Chinense x C.Baccatum)	16/8/21: F1 seeds, not grown on yet.
X023 : [BOC x Aji Pineapple] x Sugar Rush Stripey ([C.Chinense x C.Baccatum] x C.Baccatum)	16/8/21: F1 seeds, not grown on yet.

FAQs
- Why so many crosses? Please check my username.

- Seriously, why so many crosses? I like to have plenty of F1 seeds available to pick from at the start of a growing cycle. For me personally it stops me wishing I'd made some more crosses 6 months ago and when a particular cross project hits a dead end or doesn't look interesting I have something else I can quickly switch to. You'll see quite a few interspecific crosses in my list, they are often doomed to failure so having a Plan B helps.

- Are you attempting to stabilise all of these? No, only ones which head in a direction I like.

- How many plants do you grow? 90% of my crosses are started on indoor plants grown in mini-hydro kratky jars, 240ml/8oz. Plants are kept really small and I typically only get one or two F0 pods to get F1 seeds from. So far I've normally grown two F1 plants if possible, plant numbers in subsequent generations depend on how much space I have available in each growing cycle.

- Isn't it better to just focus on a single cross? If you like all your eggs in one basket and you're not concerned with sequentially growing projects over a very long time period then yes. This is just a hobby for me so I like to keep it varied and fun whilst still attempting to stabilise my favourites.

- Why haven't you given your crosses silly names? That time will come as is traditional in the chilli pepper world. I likely won't bother until I have something vaguely stable and predictable, possibly F4 onwards.

---

A summary of my live projects where I'm growing plants as of June 2021 are:

• X003 : Brazilian Starfish Red x [CGN21500 x 7 Pot Barrackpore] (C.Baccatum x C.Chinense)
• X004 : Tasmanian Habanero x Giant White Habanero (C.Chinense x C.Chinense)
• X005 : Fidalgo Roxa x Giant White Habanero (C.Chinense x C.Chinense)
• X006 : Fidalgo Roxa x Fijian Bongo (C.Chinense x C.Chinense)
• X007 : Fijian Bongo x Aji Jobito (C.Chinense x C.Chinense)
• X011 : Giant White Habanero x Fijian Bongo (C.Chinense x C.Chinense)

More details of where I'm at with generations, phenotypes, plants and photos in subsequent posts on this thread. Everything is early on and ranges from F1 to F3. I've also attempted some new crosses already this season so will also mention those.

 

[ChilliCrosser]

Thx for the update on Starfish Stripey C.

Meant to post a picture on that as well rather than just the link.

Here's the biggest F1 at the moment, old seed casing in shot also now removed ;-)

 

[ChilliCrosser]

Hmmm, yeah me neither, honestly, just don't ask.

 

[PaulG]

Another awesome pod, CC!

 

[ChilliCrosser]

Colour difference more obvious in real life but an illustration of the apricot/peach type colour I'm getting on pods from the same red starfish accident plant that's throwing me the octopus shape pods.

The group of two pods in each picture (apricot/peach-ish) versus standard Brazilian Starfish Orange and Brazilian Starfish Yellow colours.


If the colour sticks in future generations then even if I don't find an octopus strain I could end up with an apricot or darker peach colour starfish strain.

 

[talas]

Some more colours in the starfish universe is no bad thing there great plants to grow and delicious but let's hope the Octopod strain has some legs..lots of them.

 

[ChilliCrosser]

Colour difference more obvious in real life but an illustration of the apricot/peach type colour I'm getting on pods from the same red starfish accident plant that's throwing me the octopus shape pods.

The group of two pods in each picture (apricot/peach-ish) versus standard Brazilian Starfish Orange and Brazilian Starfish Yellow colours.


If the colour sticks in future generations then even if I don't find an octopus strain I could end up with an apricot or darker peach colour starfish strain.

Photo that shows the colour difference better and more accurately

 

[ChilliCrosser]

Harvested a small ripe pod from the F2 plant that's giving me a peach phenotype whilst waiting for the bigger pods to ripen. As expected, not big enough to have F3 seeds in.


Took the opportunity to have another little taste. Packed way more of a punch than I expected when I taste tested it, glistening pod internals should have waved the red flag to me!


It had an initial sweetness but I was almost immediately overwhelmed by heat. I'm not great with hot pods raw but the heat was way up there somewhere past an average hab. Still looking forward to trying the larger pods when ripe and also hope to get enough to dehydrate and powder which is how I use most of my hotter varieties. Flavour when powdered might be more dicernable to me

Another of the F2s for X004 (Tasmanian Habanero x Giant White Habanero) has a similar level of heat and similar taste to the peach F2 but has now shown itself with red pods. Also strong folding/pleating on these which wasn't something exhibited in either of the parents.

The plant itself is small and compact, but is in a small pot too. Only a small number of F3 seeds in each of the red pods. After 4 ripe pods on the peach F2 I'm still without seeds, hoping more will ripen in time on that plant so I can at least keep the peach line going. Attempting to stress a few of the F2's to encourage them to ripen some pods before the really cold weather arrives.

 

[ChilliCrosser]

Random cross I made whilst I had the plants available. Cross made 28th July, fully ripe pod harvested today.
Brazilian Starfish Orange (C.Baccatum) x Jays Peach Ghost Scorpion (C.Chinense). F1 seeds don't look too bad given an interspecific cross.
Not in a rush to try these, they will join the back of the F1 seed queue as have way too much in germination right now given it's heading into my winter!

F0 Pod


F1 Seeds

 

[talas]

Very promising my friend will keep my eyes wide open on your F1seed germination posts as I fear your going to produce something rather wicked.

 

[ChilliCrosser]

One more plant has revealed it's hand in my X011 F3 red grow out. Another non-red pheno, now 4 lobed and yellow-orange 10 more F3 plants still to go. On this part of the X011 grow out I'm looking for the chunky 5 lobed red pheno I got at F2, as shown in my avatar. Plants have a way of keeping it fun!

 

[ChilliCrosser]

2 minute progress update video on my #stripeystarfish project.

 

[talas]

Loving the Videos CC and subbed,good news,progress been made .

 

[ChilliCrosser]

Loving the Videos CC and subbed,good news,progress been made .

Thanks @talas, moving along slowly.

Going to have fun trying to keep that quick growing F1 plant in a small hydro, normally stick to kratky but as these will be going into a new tent I'm going to add some aeration to the container to help things. Starting (overly) optimistically with a 1L bucket, so around 500-600ml liquid which is twice what I use on my small kratky breeding plants normally. Have some 3L buckets in reserve just in case but really want to keep it compact. Starfish based plants have a habit of making me pay when using hydro .

I also stuck a couple of F1 seeds into test germ on that Orange Starfish x JPGS just because I liked your comment. So if by some miracle one of them germinates then it's entirely your fault I have another 1-2 plants

On a similar long shot, just harvested a ripe pod after 79 days to get F1 seeds for Sugar Rush Stripey x Pimenta De Neyde. Horrible Baccatum, Chinense, Annuum cocktail going on there but if something actually germs then I will be fascinated to see how the chemistry works between heavy anthocyanin and striping. Took 2 of the best looking seeds and popped them into germ yesterday.

 

[talas]

Always enjoyed you talking about kratky grows and don't blame you adding some airation to your grow I'm sure..strike that .. I hope it helps with faster development and seeing I've never tried kratky it's going to be fun for me to try next year.
Well there's always room for an extra plant or two...
Sugar Rush Stripey x Pimenta De Neyde /annuum nice and I can see the logic there it may throw some unusual phenos to say the least if we get germination as you no it certainly has thrown some wonderful Chinense crosses into the world and some cross annuums.

 

[ChilliCrosser]

Best research I've seen indicates for bridging the Baccatum - Annuum problems, [Baccatum x Chinense] x Annuum gives the best odds. This one would probably be more like Baccatum x [Chinense x Annuum] or Baccatum x [Annuum x Chinense] depending on what PDN actually is. It's in my list of very unlikely but potentially exciting F1 attempts.

 

[ChilliCrosser]

I've already posted an example of the F2 plant from this grow out that has produced a ripe pod. Again, the F2s on this are starting light green with the typical Fidalgo Roxa blush.

I do have this F2 plant that is starting super dark though, not sure how it will ripen.

No colour action on this F2 plant, still purple very much the theme.

 

[ChilliCrosser]

Whereas a sibling is giving even more varied colour transitions and ripening patterns. Have shared previous colour changes on this F2 plant but it's now giving some nice marbling effects and a few different colour tones. The colours in the pictures are a bit muted as today is very overcast.

 

[PaulG]

More interesting results, CC. The mottled coloring is nice.

 

[ChilliCrosser]

More interesting results, CC. The mottled coloring is nice.

I like it too but I suspect it is just an alternative response to diminishing light levels. Pods on this plant earlier in the year were popping with bright colours.

 

[talas]

That F2 fidalgo Roxa cross shows it's heritage well and be interesting if it does change color.
But it's sibling is doing a dance of color across the pods a beauty of plant that one.