• Do you need help identifying a 🌶?
    Is your plant suffering from an unknown issue? 🤧
    Then ask in Identification and Diagnosis.

breeding RichardK's 2010 Crosses

Hello everyone, first off I hope everyone is having a good season and I would like to share some details on some crosses I made last season.

I have looked around the internet and found very few details on intentional or unintentional pepper crosses and the results. So I put these images together to share with the world my results, and I'll try and make these every year for every new cross I make as a guide for anyone curious about crossing varieties.

I did several crosses last year, but due to space restrictions I was only able to grow three of them this year. The crosses I grew this year are the following:
Caribbean Red (female host) x Orange Habanero (male donor)
Caribbean Red (female host) x Congo Trinidad (male donor)
Congo Trinidad (female host) x Caribbean Red (male donor)

Overview:
Crosses_Table.jpg


Information:
This is an overview of the crosses, these are a batch of recently harvested Parent and F1 pods, arrows point two and from parents and from F1 child to mother (host plant).

Detailed look at Caribbean Red x Orange Habanero:
Caribbean_Red_X_Orange_Hab_Table.jpg


Information:
I wasn't too excited about this cross at first, I figured I would get a Red pod with Orange Habanero flavor and a little more heat than an Orange Habanero, basically a Red "Orange Habanero". I was wrong, I got larger, blockier pods with a more potent Caribbean Red flavor and pods that ripened to dark orange then dark red. The plant looks like an Orange Habanero and the pods are dark green when immature (like an Orange Habanero) with the heat (dare I say) even hotter than the Caribbean Red. The plants yielded extremely well and set fruit very easily (they were the first plants to load up this year) which resulted in branches loaded with pods that wept from the weight. A suprise favorite this year and something I am going to grow next year for sure.

Detailed look at Caribbean Red x Congo Trinidad:
Caribbean_Red_X_Congo_Trinidad_Table.jpg


Information:
I was hoping this cross would yeild larger pods than the parent Caribbean Red (and they do average a bit larger) and to have the Caribbean Red flavor but first results were disappointing to say the least. The yeilds are good and the pods are a bit larger or the same size as a typical medium to large Caribbean Red habanero, immature pods are medium green (same as Congo Trinidad) with Congo Trinidad flavor with a hint of Caribbean Red and the heat somewhere between the two. The "short flower stem" trait of the Caribbean Red is aparent in the F1 along with the "Wrinkling" at the top which is common on my Caribbean Red pods. The plant looks like a Congo Trinidad except it's more bushy and compact with smaller leaves. Other than that, not much else of the Caribbean Red made it through and I essentially have a smaller version of a Congo Trinidad which is why I was disappointed with this cross.

Detailed look at Congo Trinidad x Caribbean Red:
Congo_Trinidad_X_Caribbean_Red_Table.jpg


Information:
I did both ends of the cross just to see if I got different results, and I did. Just as the other side of the cross above, I was a bit disappointed on the results. Pretty much the same as above in Heat and Flavor however the pods are as large as the Congo pods and the plant has the short flower stem trait of the Caribbean Red and the plant itself looks almost idential to the Congo Trinidad in appearance and vigor. The pods are very different from the other end of the cross in that they are not as wrinkled and appear almost like Orange Habaneros with large dents mostly near the bottom and the Caribean Red "wrinkling" at the top. Again, a bit disappointed but not as much as the other end of the cross, it yeilds very well and doesn't seem to stop fruiting or growing dispite loading up. Essentially I have a Congo Trinidad with a very different pod shape and a flavor mostly like a Congo with a faint trace of Caribbean Red flavor.

What I learned from this first year of crossing:
Large Pod Size mostly dominant
Short Flower Stem dominant over Long Flower Stem
Dark Green Immature Pods dominant to Light Green Immature Pods
Caribbean Red "Heart Shaped" leaves trait recessive
Caribbean Red "Pumpkin like" wrinkling at the top of pods is dominant
Caribbean Red flavor dominant over Orange Habanero flavor but recessive to Congo Trinidad flavor

Thats all for now, next year I will be hopefully growing these crosses...

Caribbean Red (male) x Bih Jolokia (female)
Caribbean Red x Aji Chombo (both ways)
Congo Trinidad x Bih Jolokia (both ways)
Congo Trinidad (female) x Aji Chombo (male)
Bih Jolokia (female) x Aji Chombo (male)
 
THAT kind sir, is an enormous ammount of information for my simple pepperhead brain to comprehend. But I'm sure that someone on here will find this very interesting!
 
Even though it is months (next year) away I look forward to the F2 generation notations. Thanks for publishing your crosses and findings
 
great post, Richard.
I really really enjoyed reading your assessment of those crosses.
I think one of the coolest little facts you also gathered has to do with crosses that go Orange as an intermediate phase to Red. Pretty interesting stuff.
 
Great work so far Richard and a lot more work to come, this interests me very much about the genetic inheritance of the peppers, if your looking for a few crosses PM me...
 
Interesting informations :)

So you find differences between the two ways cross of the caribbean red and congo trinidad ? Were they the same plants used in the 2 cross ? mainly in growth habit (bushy, smaller leaves) and pod size and appearance if i understand well ?

It's interesting, specially has it seems to keep more the kind of growth from the plant used as female.

About the disappointment in these cross, try some F2, you'll surely find some plants you would prefer ^^.

About the caribbean red x orange hab cross, it seems to be interesting as a F1, i'm not sure you could fix all the good surprises you had, hehe.
 
Epigenetics could come into play when it comes to F and M genetics in pretty much anything. Much like kids whose grandparents never underwent a period of famine during puberty (for males) or gestation (for females) have less chronic diseases throughout their lifespan.

So yeah, maybe the resulting crosses are genetically identical, but they may perform in a different fashion in those F1s.
 
Were they the same plants used in the 2 cross ? mainly in growth habit (bushy, smaller leaves) and pod size and appearance if i understand well ?

The day I made the two crosses, I selected three "host" flowers from each of the two plants I chose to pair, I made sure they were a day away from opening and then I removed the petals and tied string around them, then I picked a set of "donor" flowers that appeared to have lots of pollen and used them to pollinate the three flowers of the opposite plant.

So in short, yes each way of the cross was the same two plants.

About the Caribbean Red x Orange habanero, seeing as how it's as good as I can expect, I am going to overwinter the F1's instead of growing just F2 seed. I think being picky and trying to improve it more would be foolish. If it aint broke, don't fix it :)
 
Now you've got me all excited for next season. I've got two Orange Hab plants right next to two Caribbean Reds and I've been saving seed. Maybe I'll get lucky!
 
Back
Top