Striped pepper!

[AlittleSalt]

For now, I'm sticking with my thought that the Enjoya seeds I planted back on New years Eve are F2s, but it really doesn't matter to me. If they taste good, I'll grow them again, and if they are compost food - I won't grow them again. (This is my simplified way of looking at it.)

I do understand the interest of knowing why and how they grow the way they do. Besides, could you imagine marketing Jalapeno peppers with that kind of colorization? I've seen sites that base their Scoville units of other pepper varieties compared to jalapenos. And the public uses that scale even though jalapenos can be anywhere from 2,000-to-20,000+ Scoville units depending on variety, growing area, and conditions.

One example is my av over there <<< It's Tabasco peppers. If you pick them here in June, they have around 5,000 Scoville units heat or less. If you pick them in November after going through the hot Texas summer and Fall - they are closer to 100,000 Scoville units. Yet, they are rated as between 30,000 and 50,000.

I won't go on. It's getting late.

[Darren Abbey]

Originally Posted by AlittleSalt

I do understand the interest of knowing why and how they grow the way they do. Besides, could you imagine marketing Jalapeno peppers with that kind of colorization?

This is pretty much my entire motivation for exploring this trait.

[PhilaGardener]

Originally Posted by dmforcier

Nor I, but we've seen no contrary evidence either. Be patient.

There have been a few reports (in other places) of seed grown offspring producing plain yellow fruit like Darren's plant. It's a good mystery . . .

[Fred Hempel]

Thanks Darren,

That pretty much settles it. I would be surprised if anyone sees the variegation in plants grown from seed.

It is well known that many examples of plant variegation are are not sexually transmissible (they are limited to the plant on which they arise, unless that plant is cloned and made into many plants)

See examples of chimeral variegation in this link

Originally Posted by Darren Abbey

The following quote is from the patent for the pepper.

"[0011] `E20B3751` was discovered in a screening trial of mutants of pepper variety `Maduro` conducted at Est, Netherlands. The mutant `E20B3751` was selected based on its vertical red and yellow stripes color and propagated vegetatively (i.e., asexually)."

I had assumed this meant it was propagated via tissue culture, but grafting would also be consistent.

[Fred Hempel]

This simply looks like uneven ripening, which is very normal in peppers. With time this whole pepper will be yellow.

Originally Posted by Darren Abbey

One of my plants is definitely showing minor variegation on the green areas of the fruit. This is the first plant to ripen and no red is in evidence.

[Barb_FL]

I picked these today from same plant. The other plant has a couple of ripe ones with the rest green. All are solid yellow when ripe. Will taste tomorrow.

[AlittleSalt]

Thanks Barb. Well, it's up to how they taste now.

That gives everyone who really wants to try to figure them out one fact - they do grow and produce even if they do turn out to be F2s. It will be interesting to see how the next generation turns out.

The way I'm seeing them at this point - I have two healthy looking Enjoya plants in seed cells and zero Keystone Giants growing in the two cells beside them.

[dmforcier]

I wonder if they'd turn stripey when you gas them -- like green tomatoes turn red.

[efisakov]

Barb, they look big. Are the walls thick?

[PhilaGardener]

They are nice looking, @Barb_FL , even if only yellow!

Originally Posted by dmforcier

I wonder if they'd turn stripey when you gas them -- like green tomatoes turn red.

Interesting idea! Maybe @Barb_FL will put one in a plastic bag with a ripening banana - a low tech ethylene source - and let us know if anything interesting happens.

[Barb_FL]

Salt - Taste was very good; it was in stir fry.

Ella - Very thick walls

Philagardener - Sounds good; Do I pick a solid green one? Let me know and I will pick one tomorrow.

[dmforcier]

Actually, I was being a smidge facetious, but it's worth a try I suppose. I'd try it on a yellow one, in case the stripes just show up late in the ripening process.

[Darren Abbey]

Originally Posted by AlittleSalt

That gives everyone who really wants to try to figure them out one fact - they do grow and produce even if they do turn out to be F2s. It will be interesting to see how the next generation turns out.

We've actually got something a bit more interesting here.

From the patent we know the striped strain was produced via mutation breeding. The striped trait has turned out to be not heritable (or at least it is very poorly heritable) through seeds, though it is obviously heritable through vegetative propagation techniques. Thus the striped plants represent clones of a single M1 (the first generation post-mutagenesis). The seeds we have been growing represent not F2s, but M2s (the second generation post-mutagenesis).

In any sort of mutation breeding experiment, you use a sufficiently high dose of the mutagen so that you are very likely to find selectable variation. A consequence of this is that the M1 plant that was found to have striped fruit likely has many other hidden mutations from the treatment. In the M2 generation, these mutations will be segregating (just like in F2s). Of my 7 plants, 1 has purple marks on the petal tips and another has intense black shoulders on the fruit. Two visible mutations segregating out of seven plants again suggests there are many more that remain hidden yet.
----

As an aside, I expect even the vegetatively propagated plants don't always produce striped fruit. Any solid yellow or red fruit would simply be sold with regular yellow or red fruit. These plain-fruited plants might be culled as soon as they reveal themselves.

[Barb_FL]

Last night, I put a yellow one in a bag with a ripe banana for the remote chance of stripes. Will keep you posted.

[PhilaGardener]

Great experiment and well worth the try! Thanks for giving it a shot!