If you have grown peppers for any amount of time, you have seen what I call a wonky pod. I am not talking about when a whole plant is just plain wrong and you scratch you head about your labeling system or wonder about your seed stock. I use the term wonky pod to mean a single or small number of pods on a plant that aren't right when the rest of the plant throws fine pods.
Where do you think wonky pods come from? According to most growers, the pepper / pod gets all of its dna from the mother plant. So it seems we have two choices.
1. DNA flaw / mutation - I understand this is actually fairly rare because most flaws and mutations render the seed infertile.
2. Natural Variant - Seems a little bit more likely since the wonky pods are often described and found by others.
3. Growing Conditions - Maybe during the development of some pods, it was particularly dry, wet, sunny, or cloudy. But during the initial development others, not so much.
Myself, I like it when I find wonky pods because they give me something to experiment with. I am kind of leaning towards growing conditions because most often if I save the seeds from a wonky pod, I get normal plant without wonky pods. Now if a whole plant has odd pods, its seeds tend to grow the odd pods. But when it is just a handfull of pods that are wonky on a plant, it doesnt -seem- to have anything to do with dna.
So I guess the real question is do you think it is worthwhile to experiment / grow out the wonky pods?
Where do you think wonky pods come from? According to most growers, the pepper / pod gets all of its dna from the mother plant. So it seems we have two choices.
1. DNA flaw / mutation - I understand this is actually fairly rare because most flaws and mutations render the seed infertile.
2. Natural Variant - Seems a little bit more likely since the wonky pods are often described and found by others.
3. Growing Conditions - Maybe during the development of some pods, it was particularly dry, wet, sunny, or cloudy. But during the initial development others, not so much.
Myself, I like it when I find wonky pods because they give me something to experiment with. I am kind of leaning towards growing conditions because most often if I save the seeds from a wonky pod, I get normal plant without wonky pods. Now if a whole plant has odd pods, its seeds tend to grow the odd pods. But when it is just a handfull of pods that are wonky on a plant, it doesnt -seem- to have anything to do with dna.
So I guess the real question is do you think it is worthwhile to experiment / grow out the wonky pods?