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indoor Starting to hand pollinate indoor peppers help!

J

JesterJoker

I'm starting to hand pollinate indoor peppers, I have 4 main plants in hydro buckets, they are fairly close but there is no overlap of branches, and no real airflow where they are.

Should I just paint brush them or use a electric tooth brush on the stem?


I Have heard of people doing whacky stuff to pollinate inside, but just trying to find what works best that is less time consuming.


My sweet peppers seem to have a handful of pollen, but my superhots seem to have no visible pollen at all?

Whats going on Am I missing that magic time of day that pollen is available?

It just seems that 24/7 my sweet peppers have enough pollen to fill the tip of my fingers.
 
Kevin's correct, self or open pollenating,
I run a couple of fans, #1 The fans help circulate and cool down the air, #2 The brisk movement of air sturdies up the plants and prepares them for the outdoors, #3 Only my opinion, but I believe the air circulation helps drop the pollen at that crucial time...
 
I know they are perfect flowers, I figured that I would be better off helping the cause, by hitting bud to bud and manually pushing the process faster.



and my plants will never go outdoors, I'm saving seed from them and keeping them apart for that reason.
 
please show a picture or three of up inside some of your flowers :woohoo:

try the paintbrush or finger thing
and report back

the lack of air circulation does not "help" to grow peppers;
is there a reason you do not want to have air circulation?
 
JesterJoker said:
I know they are perfect flowers, I figured that I would be better off helping the cause, by hitting bud to bud and manually pushing the process faster.



and my plants will never go outdoors, I'm saving seed from them and keeping them apart for that reason.
Click to expand...

Ok then, I'd skip the fan if you only have 4 plants, might cause a (x)

I don't isolate any plants until they're planted outdoors, so when I'm lucky enough to get some pods indoors....so be it.
But without my fans the temp can really rise, up to about 90 degress , about 78 with the fans running...
 
I would only use the paint brush method as one of many to cross two or more species types. Otherwise, I suggest to you to allow Mother Nature to do her thing. I remember my first year and wanted to intervene at every opportunity to speed along the process…I had zero patience and found it extremely painful to wait around while thinking there must be something I can do to speed along the process. After a few years it all went away because I know what to expect and when and I have my golden stash of nuclear heat!!
 
on my indoor bhuts i use a damp paintbrush and the prim time for pollen is noon to3pm make sure the flowers r open wide i have had a a great sucess rate this way good luck
 
JesterJoker, I usually just use my fingers, because I can't remember where I'd put my brush. It works very well and it will certainly increase your yield dramatically in the absence of air movement/pollinators.

EDIT: Oh, and - pics or it didn't happen! :)
 
Flakes said:
JesterJoker, I usually just use my fingers, because I can't remember where I'd put my brush. It works very well and it will certainly increase your yield dramatically in the absence of air movement/pollinators.

EDIT: Oh, and - pics or it didn't happen! :)
Click to expand...

Do you deseed the pods for seed stock for the following year...?
 
Yeah I'm saving for seed stock and breeding purposes. I'm planning a few crosses to start growing out. I'll give you a hint, I might be planning a peach colored peter pepper. I'm sure its possible but years of stabilizing. I've got the time and growing 365 should help.

If it picks up I will just sell the seed as planned.
 
I hear all these things about problems with pollinating but all my chillies self pollinate with no help from me. I don't know if its the wind, (it does get windy out there) or if its bugs, (there are tons of bugs) but the job gets done!

It seems to me that an effective method would be to act as though you are emasculating a flower but just take one stamen in a pair of tweezers and rub it on the stigma of every open flower you can find. Cut out the middle man of the finger or bug or brush. Each flower has a bunch of them to spare, so find a good one with lots of pollen and go to town.
 
megamoo said:
I hear all these things about problems with pollinating but all my chillies self pollinate with no help from me. I don't know if its the wind, (it does get windy out there) or if its bugs, (there are tons of bugs) but the job gets done!

It seems to me that an effective method would be to act as though you are emasculating a flower but just take one stamen in a pair of tweezers and rub it on the stigma of every open flower you can find. Cut out the middle man of the finger or bug or brush. Each flower has a bunch of them to spare, so find a good one with lots of pollen and go to town.
Click to expand...

Well, but you're obviously talking about keeping your plants outdoors - then of course you've got all kinds of bugs and just good old wind to do the work. Indoors, it's quite another story.
 
If there is no pollen then there is no point in manually pollinating, so I'd make sure there is pollen first. If your sweet peppers are pollinating then I think you just need patience, C. chinenses can be fussy when young and drop a few early flowers.(See Willard's list of probable causes for flower drop :) )
If you really need to pollinate yourself try shaking the plants a few times a day or add a fan to the room.
I personally have never had to manually pollinate chiles even ones indoors and in the greenhouse without much air circulation.
 
There seems to be a general lack of pollen on my superhots:

yeah one of my plants the Chocolate Bhut had like 100+ flowers and dropped them all. But that was my mistake mostly, I changed my hydroponic nutrients and messed up my mix.

My Butch-T and Brainstrain have very sturdy thick stem buds, and the Chocolate Bhut seems to be recovering.

I will just let mother nature take it in her hands.

When I do crosses I will just do pollinating then.
 
JesterJoker said:
There seems to be a general lack of pollen on my superhots:

yeah one of my plants the Chocolate Bhut had like 100+ flowers and dropped them all. But that was my mistake mostly, I changed my hydroponic nutrients and messed up my mix.
Click to expand...

I have about 6 or 7 different peppers growing and of them all, only the Chocolate Bhut has had any problem pollinating. They are all outdoors and have been spectacular at pollinating themselves, other than the Bhut. I eventually had to hand pollinate them, myself, after having a metric shit-ton of flowers come and go. I've read that it's fairly common for the Bhuts to be fussy with self-pollination.
 
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