Mystery pepper

[tam91]

My neighbor gave me some seeds for a pepper she kept talking about from "her country". I can't remember just what country, will have to ask again, but I think it's in eastern Europe. She is quite elderly, and sometimes I don't understand her too well.

This pepper is purple apparently. Don't know if it's hot or sweet, or anything else. I don't know how old the seeds are either. She says she hasn't ever seen them here.

She also gave me some other seeds for something "big, flat, red". So I'll grow those too, but I'm mostly interested in the purple ones.

As I suspect the seeds are old, I soaked them for a day first, and just sowed them. That's quite late for this area, so I'll probably grow them in pots on the deck so I can bring them inside if it gets too cold, and give them time to ripen.

I hope they sprout - should be interesting!

I'm going to try to catch her daughter, and see if I can get some more information.

As far as growing isolation to save seeds, if the peppers are on my deck, and other peppers I have are on the other side of the house, probably 200 feet away, is that good enough? (I'll stick the red ones somewhere else)

[tam91]

I ran into the lady's son.

Well my pepper seeds are four years old, and from Romania. They germinated great.

The big flat red ones they use "in the winter, to stuff cabbage in, pickling". Will have to try to get someone to explain that. They are sweet peppers.

The purple ones - no info so far.

No info on isolating peppers?

[FILMNET]

I got some hybrid seed from Marko 2 years ago of large peppers very sweet thick skin also, They were wonderful Slovenia peppers.

[tam91]

That's a pepper? Looks more like a tomato (hmm, do I have tomatoes on the brain)

I'm really excited about these peppers - I want to save seeds for the neighbors, as she's planting all sorts of peppers all over, I'm sure hers will cross.

[Boutique Tomatoes]

Pepper isolation needs depend on how much pollinator activity you have. I do isolate branches or entire plants when it's something I'm trying to increase seed for, but I also have low pollinator activity here so even non bagged seeds have only ocassionaly thrown a cross for me. All depends on your area.

If you use organza bags you will have some fruit set problems due to heat buildup, but I usually get at least one or two per bag to set.

[tam91]

I was just thinking of having them in the yard, probably 100 feet or more from any other peppers. I do have flowers around. Would that be likely to work?

[Tracydr]

Originally Posted by marktutt

Pepper isolation needs depend on how much pollinator activity you have. I do isolate branches or entire plants when it's something I'm trying to increase seed for, but I also have low pollinator activity here so even non bagged seeds have only ocassionaly thrown a cross for me. All depends on your area.

If you use organza bags you will have some fruit set problems due to heat buildup, but I usually get at least one or two per bag to set.

Oh, dear. I have so many chinoise varieties. Many that I don't have replacement seeds for. We have a lot of pollinators.
I'm concerned about heat buildup and was planning to use organza bags.

[Doug9345]

What about Tulle and could you shield them from the sun with something like white paper or aluminum foil?

[Boutique Tomatoes]

Originally Posted by tam91

I was just thinking of having them in the yard, probably 100 feet or more from any other peppers. I do have flowers around. Would that be likely to work?

Experience is the only thing that you're going to be able to tell from, if it's one you really care about keeping pure I'd try bagging some of the branches. From my trading experices with peppers, my average is about 1 in 5 plants from traded seeds isn't true to type.

[Boutique Tomatoes]

Originally Posted by Tracydr

Oh, dear. I have so many chinoise varieties. Many that I don't have replacement seeds for. We have a lot of pollinators.
I'm concerned about heat buildup and was planning to use organza bags.

You've got a totally different set of problems than I do, I have to do everything I can to get my peppers warm enough and I still get iffy fruit set in organza bags. This year I'm doing full isolation cages over the ones I'm serious about, thinking the bigger area will help.

Personally I'd probably try doing cages with insect weight row cover cloth and see what happens, but if they're rare ones you don't have replacement seeds for you might not want to risk that either. IMO, Better to get fruit set and deal with potential crosses, the odds of everything being crossed if you save from multiple fruits are pretty slim.

But just my opinion there.

[tam91]

Hmmm... How do you make an isolation cage? And is heat still a problem then?

[Boutique Tomatoes]

Basically it's just a frame with some sort of barrier material, i.e. window screen or row cover material. I'll have pictures of my PVC/row cover ones later this year, but the picture above from pepper cages at the SSE farm gives a basic idea.

[tam91]

Hmmm well that's not difficult I suppose. With window screen, it doesn't add to heat - no problems with fruit set?