Saving pepper seeds.

[dmforcier]

Originally Posted by ilex

Yes, but crossing % is much higher. Like 50% or more. Flowers are open and very attractive to polinators.

Negative! Peppers are aggressive self-pollinators. Even in crowded environments crosses rarely run higher than 10%.

And given other options, I rarely observe any pollinator interest in pepper flowers.

You want to distract birds and bugs, plant basil. You practically have to beat the bees away with a stick.

[ilex]

I see a lot of little bees working pepper flowers in my garden. The 50% number is from memory, so I can be wrong. In my area it is quite higher than tomatoes. I estimate around 5% crosses in tomatoes in my garden, so 10% sounds too low for me. You just can't trust non isolated pepper seed here. Too many crossed plants.

Guess it varies a lot between areas, depending on which insects are present.

[Starlight]

I have to agree with Ilex that the possibility of cross from non bagged peppers is around 50%. Even bagged they such hand loving little devils they can sometimes still cross. Here it is not so much the pollinators. They in short supply. It is the wind. Doesn't take much wind and that pollen is air borne.

[Darren Abbey]

The crossing rate is going to depend on what pollinators you've got around. It's also going to depend on relative flower sizes. Any pollinators of my habaneros, which have tiny flowers, aren't likely to succeed in crossing to the bell peppers with their relatively huge flowers.

The glue drop method: https://growingfoodsavingseeds.blogs...save-pure.html

I like the glue method, but I haven't used it yet. I've potted up plants to take in for the winter, so they could produce a flush of fruit without pollinators around, to get selfed seed.

[KarenO]

That is an excellent tutorial Darren, looks simple enough and I will definitely give that a try.
Thank you everyone for all the very helpful suggestions
KarenO

Originally Posted by jtjmartin

Is pepper seed saving fairly similar to tomato? Bagging just keeps the insect pollinators away (and wind pollination is not as big a factor?)

People don't usually ferment pepper seeds (probably because peppers are so firm/dry and the seeds don't have loads of gel around them). They usually just dry them.

I thought I heard that wind was a major factor in Solanaceae pollination.

Whatever the case, it's pretty easy to find crossed peppers on eBay, which seems to indicate it's not uncommon. I think two out of three varieties I got there (each from a different vendor) were crossed (two out of four if you count one pepper species I got that isn't supposed to cross as easily).

Cole_Robbie's suggestion for protecting a plant against cross-pollination sounds pretty nice.

[jtjmartin]

Darren:

Thanks for the link. That looks really easy to do and it looks like Elmer's Glue would work! I may try just dipping the whole flower in glue.

That's on my list for this summer!

Jeff

Jeff

[carolyn137]

Originally Posted by ilex

Yes, but crossing % is much higher. Like 50% or more. Flowers are open and very attractive to polinators.

I use isolating cages, 2-3 plants inside.

For just a few seeds, glue, or organza bags will do.

Yes, crossing is much higher with peppers, I started growing lots of peppers never bagged b'c I found out very quickly that isolation cages were necessary, and I had no intention of making those isolation cages.

So I stopped growing peppers. But before that I had grown a few that came true, family ones where the seeds were given to me.

Last time I looked they were still listed in the SSE Yearbook, and we're talking maybe 30 years ago when I was still growing at the old farm after moving back home from Denver.

Carolyn

Originally Posted by carolyn137

Yes, crossing is much higher with peppers, I started growing lots of peppers never bagged b'c I found out very quickly that isolation cages were necessary, and I had no intention of making those isolation cages.

So I stopped growing peppers. But before that I had grown a few that came true, family ones where the seeds were given to me.

Last time I looked they were still listed in the SSE Yearbook, and we're talking maybe 30 years ago when I was still growing at the old farm after moving back home from Denver.

Carolyn

You stopped growing them! Altogether? You could always just grow one kind of each species that isn't likely to cross every year (such as one C. annuum variety, like Neapolitan, and one C. pubescens variety, like Rocoto Aji Largo). Or, you could grow them landrace-style, where you want them to cross, and grow as many varieties as you want.

Rocoto Aji Largo is out of stock, but I have seeds (not a lot); so, if I get fruit I could save you some for next year, if you want. You need a pollinator for C. pubescens, though, I hear. So, I'm hoping I can get two plants out of five seeds, at least. It's the earliest C. pubescens variety I know about (C. pubescens varieties are often pretty late, like 120 days).

[carolyn137]

Originally Posted by carolyn137

Yes, crossing is much higher with peppers, I started growing lots of peppers never bagged b'c I found out very quickly that isolation cages were necessary, and I had no intention of making those isolation cages.

So I stopped growing peppers. But before that I had grown a few that came true, family ones where the seeds were given to me.

Last time I looked they were still listed in the SSE Yearbook, and we're talking maybe 30 years ago when I was still growing at the old farm after moving back home from Denver.

Carolyn

And of course after I had posted I remembered the two family heirlooms that eventually got offered at many places, I know I saved the links I put up but it takes too long to find them,sooo

Joe's Long Pepper

https://www.google.com/search?q=Joe%...&bih=788&dpr=1

Now Joe's Round

https://www.google.com/search?q=Joe%...ound++Pepper&*

And the history of how I got them is at many of the places that now sell seeds for them

Yes,from Joe Sestito who I met in one of Charley Brizzells green houses when I was transplanting tomato seedling there.

Carolyn

@Carolyn

Joe's Long Pepper looks pretty productive by the pictures I found on Google. Does that match what you know about it? I'm always on the lookout for productive peppers.

Thanks for sharing those.

[carolyn137]

Originally Posted by shule1

@Carolyn

Joe's Long Pepper looks pretty productive by the pictures I found on Google. Does that match what you know about it? I'm always on the lookout for productive peppers.

Thanks for sharing those.

I grew both at the old family farm which is s about a half hour north of the Albany county line a zone 5 for me, and inground,in what some would call soil but I call it dirt.

And yes, Joe's long was very productive, actually I had put out two plants of each.

I don't think so many places would be offering one or the other or both if they weren't great varieties.

Carolyn

Originally Posted by carolyn137

I grew both at the old family farm which is s about a half hour north of the Albany county line a zone 5 for me, and inground,in what some would call soil but I call it dirt.

And yes, Joe's long was very productive, actually I had put out two plants of each.

I don't think so many places would be offering one or the other or both if they weren't great varieties.

Carolyn

Awesome. Thanks. I'll be wanting to try it (or maybe both varieties) in 2018. I've got enough pepper varieties and to spare for this year.