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How often are hybrids created

Pepper Merchant

Pepper Merchant

We are looking at saving a large number of seeds this year for sharing with friends. I was wondering how often pollination between plant types occurred. I have been getting conflicting information online but that could just be due to they growing plants that don't cross.

We have about 25 plants and it's a mix of 7pot, reaper, and thunder mountain longhorns.

If crossing is almost certainly going to happen any suggestions for prevention, I have seen those small bags and glue but neither seem very easy to do if I plan to scale up in plant numbers.
 
Hard to say but probably more than often less as OP plants are subject to wind and insects polination, specialy when they are close one from each other. Netting will prevent most insect polination but won't do much against wind as pollen is so small. Gluing some flowers on each plant may be the best solution to suit your needs...
 
The easy way is to separate each variety by around a mile.
 
Since this is not really practical unless you own 1000s of acres of land, the bag or glue thing is all you can do. Depending on the size of your plants, you can use a paint strainer bag meant for 5 gal buckets and cover a whole plant or a large branch - that's about as easy as it's gonna get I think.
 
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I don't isolate, and I've been saving seeds for a few years now.
 
I find it fun to get an occasional hybrid cross.  But you need to have a tolerance for things not growing as planned.
 
So if it's important to you that each of your 7 Pot, Reaper, and Thunder Horn varieties grows true, you'll want to isolate.  Just as soon as you count on your non-isolated peppers growing true, they'll sense it and throw you an unplanned cross.  :)
 
Even if you do a good job of isolation, some of these varieties aren't as stable as you might hope.  So even your well isolated seeds might eventually have variations.
 
My personal suggestion for preventing cross pollination:  Buy seeds from a trusted vendor.
 
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HotHamilton said:
We are looking at saving a large number of seeds this year for sharing with friends. I was wondering how often pollination between plant types occurred. I have been getting conflicting information online but that could just be due to they growing plants that don't cross.

We have about 25 plants and it's a mix of 7pot, reaper, and thunder mountain longhorns.

If crossing is almost certainly going to happen any suggestions for prevention, I have seen those small bags and glue but neither seem very easy to do if I plan to scale up in plant numbers.
Click to expand...
 
  have been getting conflicting information online but that could just be due to they growing plants that don't cross.
  Try this link.>  Capsicum cross matrix   Another located >here<
 
Capsicum_Cross_Matrix.jpg
 
Close to impossible to guess. There are probably thousands of factors including distance, species, wind speed, humidity, etc. 
 
I think I read one time that C. annuum will outcross about 20% of the time under what I assume were agricultural field conditions.
 
That being said when I grow out the other species the amount of pollen they produce ranges from almost none, to huge amounts. In the ones that barely produce pollen there is a very large chance of them outcrossing because the pollen doesn't release very well, or much at all, so insects tend to contaminate the flower before it can self. 
 
So it depends - like everyone has been saying. If you want to maximize self-pollination I would just create a screen enclosure and put a handful of plants in there - or put an individual plant in a mesh bag. I can't really be bothered trying to isolate flowers personally. I just collect seeds from as many fruit as possible and then when I need to grow out that variety I grow out maybe 4 plants when I only need 1-2. You will find outcrosses from time to time but that's part of the game with peppers.
 
HotHamilton said:
We are looking at saving a large number of seeds this year for sharing with friends. I was wondering how often pollination between plant types occurred. I have been getting conflicting information online but that could just be due to they growing plants that don't cross.

We have about 25 plants and it's a mix of 7pot, reaper, and thunder mountain longhorns.

If crossing is almost certainly going to happen any suggestions for prevention, I have seen those small bags and glue but neither seem very easy to do if I plan to scale up in plant numbers.
Click to expand...
 
 
My recommendation from Pepper Guru's Glog

 
48661118042_1d39f2707e_b.jpg

 
 
_
 
The real question is this. How often are hybrids fully stabilized?
 
Also the above post looks like those pepper plants are attended a wedding.
 
Same species x same species hybrids (intraspecific hybrids)

 
are much easier to make if that is what you want, but what you have to realize is that interspecific hybrids (different species x different species) is a bit more rare. 
 
If you plant your rows with alternating species for instance... something like
Capsicum annuum 'Filius Blue', C. chinense 'Bico Roxa', C. baccatum 'Sugar Rush Peach, C. annuum 'Scarlet's Chili'... in a row would help separate out your C. annuum as well as your other species and help minimize intraspecific hybridizing which is much more likely than interspecific hybrids happening. Still, you may still end up with some interspecific hybrids, but remember same species x same species pollen is going to be the most compatible with the stigma and therefore with spacing and separation by species such as this you can definitely minimize those outcrosses.
 
A lot goes into your planning, but strictly speaking, you could end up with hybrids... however rare unless you do things like glue your flower shut so it has to self, emasculate your flower early and remove the flower parts/petals/anthers that would attract insects and hand pollinate, etc. 
 
Just as important is understanding that a single plant may produce a given phenotype in a certain high percentage, but its offspring may not. What this means is that a vendor could sell relatively stable f2, f5, etc. seeds from a given plant... but the f3 or f6 seeds you grow up could be wildly variable in phenotype. 
 
Unstable isolated seed will often be mistaken for hybrids the following generation or people will say they are off phenotype. What they really mean is that the hybrid is still new and it is not stable or true breeding yet. Expect some wild things to come from your babies if you save seed. Look at all the diversity with Pimenta de neyde x Ghost and you can get a glimpse of some of craziness that can be seen with a simple cross....
 
There is a correlation between increased outcrossing and stigma length.
Longer stigmas result in increased cross pollination. Study suggests the major pollinators are insects like bees however the same studies suggest that bees are attracted to bright flowers and thus by having plants that attract bees the rate of crossing, but only in plants with a stigma long enough for insects to transfer pollen to it easily. The flowers do produce nectar and volatile insect attracting chemicals but it is also worth noting that insect populations on Earth are dying off at insane rates and as a result less pollination is occurring.

The rate of cross pollination can be as high as 90% in some cases but it usually is considerably lower. I would expect an average of 20% so I account for that when I purchase seeds.

It should be noted as well that incompatibilities exist within species like C. annuum due to chromosomal differences that occur in different forms. For this reason you could have 0% crossing with two forms of the same species grown side by side.

Capsicum is so diverse that it defies comprehension, in other words it is so complicated that exceptions exist to many of the so-called rules we perceive to be involved.
 
You are welcome but I messed up.
I've been watching TV while posting and reading and haven't done the best job of proof reading.

I meant to write that having plants that attract bees; the rate of crossing increases, but only in plants with a stigma long enough for insects to transfer pollen to it easily.


The word I italicized was missing from the original reply I made.

I apologize for my substandard proof-reading.
 
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