breeding Step by step crossing?

Johnaton

Johnaton

Heya!
 
I'm growing quite some varieties again this year (around 30) and wanted to try my hand at crossing some for next year.
I've been searching the internet and these forums for quite a bit but there doesn't really seem to be a real step by step guide on how to do this.
The most complete information I found was on Fatalii's website (http://fatalii.net/growing/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=35&Itemid=54), but I'm still left with a few questions ...
 
Is there any possibility for pollination to have allready occured even before the flower has opened? I can't help but notice a lot of unopened flowers I open up seem to allready have quite a swollen ovary making me believe they're allready pollinated?
How does one go about this when trying to cross chinense varieties, for the life of me I can't wrap my head around how small flowers are and how nearly undetectable by the naked eye pollen seem to be. When it comes to anuums you can just see pollen falling out of opened flowers, but with them chinense's it's just nearly impossible to see what you're doing?
When you open up an unopened flower, is the stigma actually ready to be pollinated? As far as crossing goes for tomatoes, I'm pretty sure the general advice is to remove stamens and then wait up to 2 days to manually pollinate the remaining stigma, does this also apply for peppers?
 
Any tips or tricks are more then welcome because I'm really struggling (taking over 10 minutes to crosspollinate 1 flower ...)!
 
Come on guys, I'm pretty sure considering the crosses we see on these forums somebody here knows a hell of a lot more about crossing than I do, share that wisdom for the greater good ... ;-)
 
I am not trying to be obtuse but have you searched these forums?  It would definitely be worth searching for "isolation" and "hand pollination".  If you can't find the answers you want I will gladly help, I pointed someone else to the pertinent information about a week ago so won't dig out the links just yet but sing out if you are left wanting or have any specific questions after the search.
 
I just started doing this this season as well, but I answered below inline in bold
 
Johnaton said:
Heya!
 
I'm growing quite some varieties again this year (around 30) and wanted to try my hand at crossing some for next year.
I've been searching the internet and these forums for quite a bit but there doesn't really seem to be a real step by step guide on how to do this.
The most complete information I found was on Fatalii's website (http://fatalii.net/growing/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=35&Itemid=54), but I'm still left with a few questions ...
 
Is there any possibility for pollination to have allready occured even before the flower has opened?
 
No, as the pollen is not yet released by the anthers (they are closed) and the flower is "sealed" This is why you use unopened flowers. 
 
I can't help but notice a lot of unopened flowers I open up seem to allready have quite a swollen ovary making me believe they're allready pollinated?
 
Nope
 
How does one go about this when trying to cross chinense varieties, for the life of me I can't wrap my head around how small flowers are and how nearly undetectable by the naked eye pollen seem to be.
I use a headband  magnifier 
tlthreelens.jpg
 
 
When it comes to anuums you can just see pollen falling out of opened flowers, but with them chinense's it's just nearly impossible to see what you're doing?
When you open up an unopened flower, is the stigma actually ready to be pollinated?  
 
Not always, but the pollen you put on it should remain viable until the stigma is receptive. You can bag the flower to keep it safe, wait a day then pollinate. 
 
As far as crossing goes for tomatoes, I'm pretty sure the general advice is to remove stamens and then wait up to 2 days to manually pollinate the remaining stigma, does this also apply for peppers?
 
I don't know, Im doing it all in one go. Perhpas I'll try waiting a day and see how successful it is. The unfertilized flowers tend to abort after only three days on some varieties, so One day of waiting, with the flower bagged sounds ideal. 
 
Any tips or tricks are more then welcome because I'm really struggling (taking over 10 minutes to crosspollinate 1 flower ...)!
 
Emasculate several flowers at a go, then collect a bunch of pollen and pollinate them all. 
Click to expand...
 
I was just thinking about another thing. 
 
The Fatalii directions say to use a cotton swab or brush to transfer the pollen, I skip that whole step and just pull off a whole flower from the pollen parent plant, pull off the petals with tweezers and wipe the pollen covered anthers directly onto the stigma of the seed parent. Obviously you lose that flower and potential fruit from the pollen doner, so don't do this when you have very few flowers on the pollen parent. This method gives me something more substantial to hold onto when doing the cross, and frankly I'm just too lazy to be messing with brushes and swabs. 
 
You can usually tell when the pollen/anther is ready if you have a hand lens, you can see the two cracks where the anthers split open (dehisce) along the sides and the pollen inside. 
 
I do it without a hand lens. I figure if I can see it on the stigma with the naked eye, then I got it pretty good. I just use forceps to emasculate a flower. Then I mark the emasculated flowers, pick the male flower, and rub the male flower's anthers (right in the little cracks that open up) on the stigma. I do this with many flowers since they abort quite often. There is a wealth of information that goes in more detail. No sense in me repeating it.
 
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