Forum area for discussing hybridizing tomatoes in technical terms and information pertinent to trait/variety specific long-term (1+ years) growout projects.
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#1 |
Tomatovillian™
Join Date: Feb 2006
Location: Alabama
Posts: 2,250
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I love the taste and crisp texture of Orange Bell peppers, but they have several seriously negative traits such as extremely brittle stems and relatively long season to maturity. It is a superb variety here in the south, but not very well adapted to the northern tier of states or to Canada.
Frank Morton gave me a few samples of his peppers when I visited Oregon in 2012 including Little Bells which is an early maturity but relatively thin walled red sweet pepper. I decided to try crossing Orange Bell X Little Bells when Frank asked specifically about developing an orange sweet pepper from the same breeding lines that led to Little Bells. I told him at the time that the genetics were not present and that he would need an outcross to an orange variety. Since then, he has brought out several yellow/gold lines which you can see at http://www.wildgardenseed.com/ I interplanted Orange Bell and Little Bells plants in my garden in 2014, then saved seed only from the Orange Bell plants. This year, I grew the seed out and put about 30 plants in my garden. I got lucky, one single plant was a natural bee made cross! I saved seed from that plant and sent about 100 seed back to Frank in hopes he will grow it out and develop a short season orange sweet pepper adapted to his climate. I also saved enough seed to grow out next year and see what shows up here in North Alabama. The F1 cross showed up with bright red fruits which indicates the gene involved in Orange Bell is actually the tangerine gene, not beta carotene. The F1 plant matured fruit at least 2 weeks prior to the pure Orange Bell plants set out at the same time. Fruit flavor was poorer than Orange Bell, less crispy, and fruit walls were thinner. I'm hoping segregation in the F2 will moderate some of these traits. I will target large thick walled sweet peppers on sturdy compact plants with early maturity and heavy production. |
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#2 |
Tomatovillian™
Join Date: Sep 2015
Location: Zone 8
Posts: 50
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That's pretty exciting, I wish you the best of luck.
Little Bells look fairly prolific... ![]() |
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#3 |
Tomatovillian™
Join Date: Dec 2013
Location: Sterling Heights, MI Zone 6a/5b
Posts: 1,302
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I'm interested in finding bells that grow well in the north too, I really don't care about color. So I have been trying various varieties, although I'm just starting. I want a decent sweet, it doesn't have to even be a bell pepper. I have many from Europe I have yet to trial. This year the clear winner was Spanish Mammoth or Doux D' Espagne Sweet Pepper.
It produced a decent amount of peppers and the location was far from ideal being somewhat shaded. The peppers are thick and a very deep red. Beautiful peppers. Yellow Mammoth was 2nd, but production was low coming on well late in the season. It currently has 8 peppers on it, but the season is just about over. Oranges I have but yet to trial are Etiuda Sweet Pepper - from England White Cloud- Used when ivory in color, matures to a bright orange-red Not many choices for orange! |
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#4 |
Tomatovillian™
Join Date: Nov 2011
Location: ohio
Posts: 4,350
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Excellent! I have grown Orange Blaze and it is reliably and relatively early, but not much of a bell, more of a pendant shaped pepper and Yummi another small pendant shape, but late. way later than I want for my garden. They just started ripening and last night we got a frost BUMMER! I would love to see an earlier and tasty orange bell or pendant. Thanks for the effort and work.
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carolyn k |
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#5 | |
Tomatovillian™
Join Date: Jun 2012
Location: Minnesota
Posts: 586
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A few maybe useful references:
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http://the-biologist-is-in.blogspot.com |
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