breeding Spacing to prevent cross pollination

LeeRoy

LeeRoy

I'm planning to grow a couple different strains for seed and want to prevent cross pollination. How far apart should the plants be from one another?
 
miles actually, people wrap their plant with those one material don't remember the name but im sure somebody here can help.
 
It is like a mile to avoid crossing....not really feasible

You can isolate with tulle, pantyhose, and a ton of other means. Do a quick search and there a bunch of threads on it. But just so you know, you have better chances of not crossing than crossing when planting next to each other. Also, sometimes crosses are a benny!
 
I'm not sure about spacing, but I like to talk to the bees that hang around. I call them all together and tell them, if they are going to collect pollen, only collect pollen for the same type plants. I tell them that mixing pollen is like mixing uppers and downers, it can AND WILL lead to death!!
 
If you are growing only two or three plants each of two varieties, you may be able to get by with a smaller distance, say 50 feet plus barrier plants. Hot peppers as a rule of thumb may require approximately four times as much isolation distance as do sweet bell peppers. Flowers of hot peppers have style and stigma (female reproductive structures) which protrude further beyond the anther cone (male reproductive structure). This situation is called stigma exsertion, and whenever the stigma is exserted, the flower is more likely to be cross-pollinated.

The Lend-Lease Act of World War II states that for peppers, 1/4 mile isolation distance is desirable between two varieties, but the distance should not be less than 150 feet plus a barrier crop between two varieties (1,3). Evidently the 150-foot distance plus barrier crops represents a compromise between purity and practicality. In the absence of hard evidence on NCP as a function of isolation distance (but using the information from the Lend-Lease Act), I am proposing the following guidelines for SSE members which should give 98% or better purity for small plantings. Here the intended use is for preservation efforts where fairly high purity is desirable, where the seed may not be grown out each year and where dissemination is limited. On this basis the following isolation distances are recommended for the SSE:

* Between sweet bell varieties 150' plus barrier crop*
* Between hot and sweet varieties (or between two hot varieties) 600' plus barrier crop

*Note: Additional distance is desirable between long-fruited sweet varieties and sweet bell varieties, or between two long-fruited sweet varieties.

If necessary, modifications of these distances can be made by consideration of factors presented in the preceding Table of Variables Affecting NCP. If you cannot achieve the recommended minimum isolation distances of 150 feet and 600 feet for sweet and hot peppers, there are other alternatives for keeping the varieties pure:
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http://www.southerne...ers-ezp-34.html

also see

http://thehotpepper.com/topic/32354-plant-isolation-techniques-to-prevent-open-hybrids/
 
I tried the tulle fabric sewed around a chicken wire frame this year. Seems as tho it some what suffocated the plant. Next year gonna try the gelcap method.
 
its 1-1.5 miles, this according to dept. of agriculture. pick one pepper if you wanna sell seeds with 100% purity. otherwise, do what most on here do, plant them slammed next to each other and then sell the seeds with no concern of your time and labor...after all, its just 6 months or so until superhots bear fruit...no big deal .....right?
 
My 5 are in a 5x8 plot. I guess next year I'll be growing a sweet bell/jalapeño/hab hybrid :rofl: thanks for all the info
 
Try this. Bring potted plants in the house temporarily just before flowers open until pods form and then label pods and return plant to its ideal outdoor environment.
 
Use teabags to isolate a few flowers, make sure you mark them. Afterwards you can take seeds from these pods, the rest of the pods may be hybrids but it wont effect the pods themselves.
I'm pretty sure a few teabags should be enough for self use.
 
Isolating individual flowers with teabags (or other material... coffee filters?) sounds like a good idea. I'll probably do this or try cloning. For some reason cloning hadn't occurred to me, which is odd as I am familiar with growing another plant variety (which shall remain nameless) for which cloning is the preferred method of propagation.

After doing a little research it sounds like peppers aren't the easiest plants to clone, but I am familiar with a few different cloning techniques so I'm willing to give it a shot. I'm just looking for the easiest and most reliable ways to maintain strain consistency.
 
Another thing to consider is not just space but time. Sometimes I get something to bloom before anything else and then those flowers are not cross pollinated. That is how I am getting pure bhut seed this year since I had an overwintered one way ahead. Seed to Seed says 500 feet for peppers. Over 1 mile is needed for cucurbits but not solanaceaes.
 
Cloning should also work, people are using it a lot for peppers. Basically it's like with any other plant, get some rooting hormone for better results. Didn't get the chance to do it myself yet since I'm still on my first year and still learning but I read a lot about it.
 
Boost313 said:
I tried the tulle fabric sewed around a chicken wire frame this year. Seems as tho it some what suffocated the plant.
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I do this every year. By suffocate do mean they seemed to not produce as many pods as expected? If so, that is because the tulle does it's job by keeping out pollinating insects, allowing the flowers to self pollinate. I have played with the color of the tulle over time and found white just does it's job, blue does not help(IMO hinders a little), and my pick for all use here on out is red. I had 2 Morougas isolated this year, one under blue and one under red. After defoliation and covering the blue produced 4 pods in isolation, while the red produced 12. I have seen this in the past but this year cemented it for me. Although it is little, I believe the reflected light helps.
 
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