Chocolate Naga Viper?

[spicefreak]

I was searching the net as I do to see if any more white Naga Vipers had turned up and stumbled upon this instead.

The linked seller, "White Hot Peppers" is one of only two sites I can find that mention a Chocolate Naga Viper and they, themselves, claim no knowledge of the pepper's history.

Does anyone else have any information on the strain and whether it is a legit chocolate version of the former record holder, a cross therewith, a recreation from darker parents or something that just looks sort of vaguely similar?

 

[Buzzman19]

I know one other grower who is growing the Chocolate Naga Viper but I havent asked him yet where he got the seeds and etc.  I'll have to send him a PM and see if he has any info. 
 
It doesnt really resemble the Naga Viper all that much does it so curious as well. 
 
 

 

[Gorizza]

Isn't naga viper supposed to be hybrid every year?
 
If they have no knowledge of the history I imagine they aren't reproducing the cross.  haha

 

[spicefreak]

Isn't naga viper supposed to be hybrid every year?

I've heard tell of such but I also know that the Vipers I grew last year weren't direct from the breeder. They were, however, very true to both his pictures and the taste of his sauce. I think that rumour might be an exaggeration but it definitely was a highly unstable strain on release and so genetic stock will vary wildly from seller to seller.

This is part of why I'm prepared to believe that a brown not too close in appearance could still be a pure blood descendant of the pepper.

 

[AJ Drew]

On naga viper being a hybrid each year.  I -think- I know the basis for the rumor.  Before I share, let me say I do not understand it, so please dont think I am being all smarty pants.

Been trying to write a big book of peppers sort of thing.  Just a what is what really.  Anyway, I dont remember where, but I read that the thing had to be purchased from Gerald Fowler or those he licensed because it was an F1 hybrid only due to an inability to be properly grown out.

The thing is supposedly impossible to stabilize due to the segregation of "alleles".  There is that word I do not understand.  Anyway, the three contributing parents: Naga Morich, Bhut Jolokia, and Trinidad Scorpion.  Bhut Jolokia and maybe Naga Morich are crosses of chinense and frutescens.  According to what I read, being interspecies crosses contributes somehow to the segregation of alleles.  Something about the way the order in which they were crossed.  Evidently, at some point both parents were interspecies?

I dismissed the rumor after hearing from many sources it is simply bs.  There are many seed that are F1 only.  Think on seedless water melon.  But I am thinking given enough time anything that can reproduce can be stabilized.  i might be wrong, but seems eventually you could eliminate enough genes that it would have no choice but to be stable.

Again: I am NOT even sure what an alleles is, this all confuses the hell out of me, and I do not really think it is right.  Sounds more like marketing than anything else.
 

 

[spicefreak]

Alleles, as I understand it, are just genes where 1 copy is obtained from each parent (in this case 1 from parent C and one from parent AxB). Usually this will result in 2 different genes that affect the same feature and one will dominate the other. The second copy may show up in future offspring, however, hence why F1s don't tend to breed true.

On rare occasions, though, the non-dominant gene isn't truly recessive and does have a noticeable effect. This can be seen in people with one instance of the sickle cell anaemia gene having a level of malaria resistance or those with a certain damaged eye colour gene appearing blue eyed even when the gene for brown seems to dominate to anything but outward appearance.

I have never heard of such a thing in a chilli plant, though, and don't know what "segregation of alleles" means as a term.

 

[Gorizza]

I don't think you really need to get too deep into the genetics to understand this. F1s are more vigorous than their parents, and parents can be chosen from different heterotic groups to accent this "hybrid vigor" or "heterotic effect."  The reason why is not totally understood but a lot of scientists and breeders point to "pseudo-overdominance" as explained by Jim Birchler. Just google the term if you're interested.
 
You don't have to understand why it happens to know its true. Look at this figure, the parents on on the left and right and an F1 plant is in the middle:

 

[AJ Drew]

I have never heard of such a thing in a chilli plant, though, and don't know what "segregation of alleles" means as a term.

 
Exactly the point where I loose understanding too.  My formal education in genetics ended at Jr. High Earth Science.  Something about fruit flies having either straight or curled wings.  No I have kids that check to see if my ear lobes are attached, if my tongue can curl, which fingers and toes are longer than others, if my nipples are innies or outies, and then they have to inform me over and over again that the same with the belly button is not a genetic trait.  It is how the doctors treat the cord at birth.

I am thinking I want to learn more about genetics and peppers.  What colors are dominant comes to mind.  But anything beyond the simple will likely send my head spinning.  I can fix a tractor if I take it apart, but I am none too smart in book learning.