D3monic's Crossing Project/Community Grow

Click for Currently Crossed List- Will keep it updated as new crosses are added.
 
 
Butch T Yellow and Bahamian Goat won the poll!

1. Aji Omni Color (4 votes [8.16%]
2. 
    Bahamian Goat (14 votes [28.57%]
3. 
    Butch T Yellow (9 votes [18.37%]
4. Aji Crystal (3 votes [6.12%] 
5. Caribbean Red Habanero (3 votes [6.12%]
6. Paper Lantern Habanero (7 votes [14.29%] 
7. Bolsa De Dulce (3 votes [6.12%]
8. White Bhut (6 votes [12.24%] 

 
Alrighty folks! It's almost plant out time and that means that my basement and lights are going to be freed up for some crossing projects through the summer. 
 
I have 4 DWC buckets available for growing peppers indoors all summer. (not to mention racks for seedling growout)
2 spots are already taken by White Fatalii and CGN-21500.
 

 
These Plants will be the Base for all my other crosses. Meaning that I will use pollen from plants that are outdoors in the rest of my collection crossed with these. These will be tagged and harvested and grown out in the basement to choose phenos. I'm planning on going for taste more than heat. 
 
Plants to choose from  
 

 
My biggest focus will be crossing the White Fatalii with CGN-21500 but will do plenty of other crosses with them as well. 
 
Here is my entire grow list and potential candidates to be crossed with my final choices (hope that makes sense)
 
Bhut Orange Copenhagen
Jays Peach Scorpion
Fatalii
Bonda ma Jaques
Butch T Yellow
Sweet Datil
Bulsa de dulce
Aji Omni-color
Aji Limon
Fidalga Roxa
White Bullet Hab
Paper Lantern Hab.
Jamaican Hot Chocolate hab.
White Fatalii
White Bhut jolokia
Urfa Biber
Inca Berry
Caribbean Red Hab
Aji Pineapple
BG7
Orange Wild Brazil
Goatsweed
Chocolate Habanero
Mystery Hababhut?
Scotch Bonnets
Taquila Sunrise "Hot"
Fooled you jalapeno
Yellow Primo
White Devils tongue
7pot Yellow brainstrain
Trinidad Giant yellow congo
Bahamian goat
Aji Crystal
Cumari do Para
Carolina Reaper
7pot Yellow
Yaki brown
Xalapa Jalapeno
Pink Tiger 
Criola Sella
7pot White 
Tepin X Lemon drop (iso) F2 
Aji Amarillo 
MOA Scotch Bonnet 
Champion (baccatum)
Large Orange Thai (growdown throwdown)
Yellow bhut
Australian Lantern Habanero
CGN-21500
Carbonero
 
Once the poll is complete Thursday night- the two winning plants will be moved to the hydro system and this thread will serve as my grow log for this project. 

Y'all are more than welcome to offer suggestions as to what you would like to see crossed with what as well. I'm sure I will be sharing seeds with most of you at some point (prolly F2? maybe some F1's)
 
 

 

[D3monic]

Aji Pineapple X Butch T Yellow f1.. gotta say it looks suspiciously like a regular aji pineapple. We shall see what the finished product is and how it compares to the other plants I'm getting ready to plant out. 
 

 

[grantmichaels]

Mmmmm ...

 

[D3monic]

Separated some the Lemon drop X inca berry f2's
 

 

 
Went ahead and potted two of the Aji Pineapple X Butch T yellow f1s outside. Still have the one in the hydro as well. 
 

 

 

[Genetikx]

Baha goat x butch t looking happy. Just need to figure out its permanent home, will probably be in a big square pot.

 

[D3monic]

Looking great!

 

[D3monic]

Crosses are starting to look better now that they have been in the greenhouse. The fungus is clearing up and lots of new leaves. 
 

 
Front left I potted up the dark leafed 7pot burgundy X CGN 21500. The other one looks nicer but this is the one that was displaying darker foliage
 

 
Aji Amarillo X Caribbean red hab went into a big pot. Was the biggest I had, I want to say like 8 gallon. 
 

 

[tctenten]

I have 3 Lemon Drop x Inca Berry plants and they all are displaying an upward curl to some of the new growth. Are you getting this as well? I do not see any signs of pests.

I am getting some pods, just never saw leaves like that.

 

[D3monic]

I don't think mine have taco leaves

 

[tctenten]

Just started noticing it.  The plants are spread out too.  I will keep an eye on em…see what happen.

 

[D3monic]

Just started noticing it.  The plants are spread out too.  I will keep an eye on em…see what happen.

 
They don't look sad at least. I don't remember if there was a deficiency that causes that or not. 

 

[D3monic]

Hey mate, just wanted to know how exactly do you cross your peppers? Like what is the technique? I tried a few times and can't get it to work. The flower that receives the pollen off the other plant, how do you get it to set without mixing it's own pollen in?

 
I use the method described on Fatalii.net http://www.fatalii.net/Growing_chile_peppers/Breeding
 
I'll tag a unopened flower I wish to use,
 

 
carefully peel the petals off with forceps,
 

 
pick the stamen off grasping by their bases. 
Then using a soft natural bristle paint brush carefully dust the stigma with pollen. (pic I was using qtip, paint brushes work better)
 

 
Then I'll wait wait paitently praying the flower doesn't abort even though 24 out of 25 times it does.
 
 
 
When tagging a flower there's not much room to write on the tags so I assign a number/letter to the cross and keep track of it on a spreadsheet. Like for example 
 

 

 
For pollen storage I use micro centrifuge tubes. Can find them on amazon or medical supply places. I do the same thing with these and assign a number and keep track of the pollen on a spreadsheet that way I can easily look up what pollen was in which vial. 
 

 
To collect the pollen I just push the vial up to a pollen loaded flower and tap the shit outta it. Collect pollen from as many flowers on that plant as I can, revisiting it ever few days for more. If you have desiccant beads it wouldn't be a bad idea to place one in each vial to absorb any excess moisture. After collection I freeze my pollen so it will be viable longer. 
 
Here's my little field kit I take out into the garden. Just a small clipboard folder with my spreadsheets, a small pouch taped into it to hold my paint brushes and marker and some butterfly tags
 

 
There's lots of blank spots on the spreadsheet so as I'm crossing I can write the cross down on it then can update it on computer at my leisure. 
 
Here's an example of my cross spreadsheet https://www.dropbox.com/s/p0iqsj9n2iebjcr/Pepper%20Cross%20spreadsheet.xls?dl=0
 
Here's blank spreadsheets for crosses 
 
For pollen tracking 

 

[D3monic]

I potted up one the Aji Omni color. Will keep it in the greenhouse for crosses.  I think i'm going to try dusting a few flowers this afternoon with some of the old pollen in the freezer and see if any of it takes. 
 

 

[D3monic]

Went ahead and dusty a few flowers on Omni Color. 
 

 
Hitting it with some frozen Aji Amarillo pollen from last fall
 

 
Like the flower version of a money shot....
 

 
I had a tiny bit of fresh pollen from the peach bhut so I hit the last flower that looked of age. 
 

 

[az1000]

Good luck! I hope it works

 

[D3monic]

Thanks, mostly an experiment to see if the old pollen is still viable but there will be several crosses I do with the omni color this year. It's one of my favorite peppers looks and taste wise.

 

[OCD Chilehead]

Awesome!!

I hope they all take, but I'm really interested in seeing how that Aji Pineapple / Butch T comes out. I might try my hand at crossing Black Cobra this year.

In your experience, are Annuum's easier to cross than Chinese?

 

[D3monic]

I didn't have any of my annum crosses take last year but as far as difficulty I'd say yes . Bigger the flower the easier it is to demasculate. Kept trying serrano x aji pineapple last year with no luck.

 

[Devv]

Great explanation of how you manually pollinate!
 
Good luck and I hope they take

 

[D3monic]

Aji Pineapple x Butch T Yellow.

.

 

[grantmichaels]

Interesting ...

Thicker than most AP's I've had ...