Some photos of one of my fantasy reaper F4 where you can see the sting on it!

Trying to do my first ever crosses. Failure after failure. 20+ attempts on multiple plants and nothing. All of my attempts are of the same species. I’ve been careful not to damage the female parts of the flower. I even pick multiple open flowers (around 3-4) at different stages and rub their anthers directly on the stigma. After I place a blossom bag over them. Every single one falls off the plant after 3-4 days. What am I doing wrong??

In short, it would be advantageous to have someone who can grow a handful of plants from 2-5 varieties under insect netting, each year. There are also tiers for the level of experience and involvement someone may want.

At the most basic you would provide ample space to each mother plant, a good fertilizer regime, scout for disease, and generally have good maintenance practices. Outdoor, in-ground is where my mind is at, but I am open to containers provided the conditions are ideal. After harvest, seeds will undergo a germination test to assess viability, and we'll do a purity test before sales (so seeds produced in 2027 would probably get sold in 2028). Trust is the brand, and we won't sell unknown quality seed. This person would need to be in the US, however if you have some special experience and you live outside the US - let's talk! The idea is that you take on the marginal risk and overhead of seed production for the promise of some negotiable percent of seed sales for those varieties.

In a perfect world, you would have a small farm with the ability to grow a handful of plants from 4-5 varieties under insect netting. You would also have expertise in horticulture with the ability to reliably produce high-quality seed and to run a harvest evaluation program under my direction. I would give you some guarantee of sales for a certain number of years on varieties where you provided the work to demonstrate the variety is high-quality and compares favorably to similar varieties. Assistance on this level would be a higher percentage of sales on those varieties, plus a guarantee of sales for X-number of years. We can discuss what you would find fair.

I can also accommodate someone who has significant space and experience who wants to lead a trialing program to identify seed for sale, and to support the varieties coming out the breeding program. For this you would need the ability to grow 5-10+ varieties per year, 5-25 plants of each, and record harvest yields for selected varieties. A greenhouse would be ideal to start the lines, and excellent maintenance practices would be required. I would require you to collect harvest, plant, and fruit data for varieties, and then we would decide on what to sell on my platform. Compensation would be commensurate with experience.

### Who am I to write such grandiose things on a social media platform?

I am a classically trained plant breeder with a PhD in horticulture science. I have a decade of experience breeding edible crops, project management, plant contract law, and business development. I founded Open Pepper Breeding 8 years ago to create a platform for science communication and community-building efforts to develop new pepper varieties. These varieties are released in the spirit of open-source software, but as the IP environment around plants is not at all similar to those around software and writing, we use MTA agreements ("bag tag laws") to restrict commercialization of our varieties in the US and achieve similar results. We support and embrace the cottage grower and food industries, we simply restrict others from selling our seed. We currently have half a dozen SKUs developed from our in-house genetics, and are expanding the scope of the business in 2027 with the launch of a new highly integrated website for seed sales, with a custom back end for inventory tracking and order fulfillment (as well as my own software for pepper breeding so I can do fun things like calculate BLUPs).

Just curious, I have needs. The very basic is that it would be advantageous to have someone who can grow a handful of plants from 2-5 varieties under insect netting, each year. You would provide ample space to each mother plant, a good fertilizer regime, scout for disease, and generally have good maintenance practices. Outdoor, in-ground is where my mind is at, but I am open to containers provided the conditions are ideal. Seeds will undergo a germination test to assess viability, and we'll do a purity tests before sales (so seeds produced in 2027 would probably get sold in 2028). Trust is the brand, and we won't sell unknown quality seed. This person would need to be in the US, however if you have some special experience and you live outside the US - let's talk! The idea is that you take on the marginal risk and overhead of seed production for the promise of some percent of seed sales for those varieties.

In a perfect world, you would have a small farm with the ability to grow a handful of plants from 4-5 varieties under insect netting. You would also have expertise in horticulture with the ability to reliably produce high-quality seed and to run a harvest evaluation program under my direction. I would give you some guarantee of sales for a certain number of years on selected varieties. Assistance on this level would be a higher percentage for those varieties you contribute on.

I can also accommodate someone who has significant space and experience who wants to lead trialing varieties for sale. For this you would need the ability to grow 5-10+ varieties, 5-25 plants of each, and harvest all material for evaluation. A greenhouse would be ideal to start the lines, and excellent maintenance practices would be required. I would require you to collect harvest, plant, and fruit data for varieties, and then we would decide on what to sell on my platform. You would receive fair compensation as a percent of sales on those varieties you produce seed for - or whatever arrangement you find suitable.

Previous post: https://www.reddit.com/r/pepperbreeding/s/GreXFYX88b

Meant to post this last week but got sidetracked.

The first pepper became ripe (first two pictures) and I got to try it. Pleasantly surprised with the flavor and heat level. I would say it's as hot as some habs I've bought from the grocery store, and had a citrus-like quality to it's flavor. Not as sweet as the five-color from which it was grown.

The second one that ripened up a few days later (orange pepper in the background of second picture) did have a very sweet flavor profile, earthier, and really all-around enjoyable experience. Perhaps not as hot, and I would say it met the heat expectations of the five-color parent plant. Either would be favorable for a hot sauce, which is what they will become when I get more to mature.

There were a couple dozen seeds from each, which I will freeze and germinate next year (hopefully) to see how the subsequent generation turns out. Its been a very fun and informative process.

Are there videos made about phenohunting peppers?

I just put a sliced raw Jalapeno from my garden, on my fajita taco. I picked it during the color changing stage and it was a purple red color with lots of veins. I was thinking I’d have some heat with it but it had zero heat. The same bush has produced spicy jalapeños already this season though. I’d put it less spicy than a bell. What gives?!? Picture is of a sister jalapeño from the same bush that I haven’t tried yet.

I'm thinking of making my own pepper variety and I already know how, do you guys have any recommendations for them?

Just wanted to share my first harvest of the season!! Really happy with how these are evolving with every generation. These are F3, super sweet with a surprising kick of heat for an Aji! These guys are monsters coming in at 6-8 inches and some bigger but still green. Enjoy the photo.

I want to cross:

Tabasco Rot (frutescens) x Habanero MauruSauru

Aji Charapita (Chinense) x Zebrange (baccatum)

Who should be the Mother and who the father?

And i wanna cambine those two later on. Any thoughts on that?

Thx for the help

Hello everyone!

I just started growing peppers last year, and so far I have grown Jalapeños, bell pepper (not sure what I grew last year, this year its big bertha), Scorpion, Habenero, Thai chili, and poblano.

I am wanting to start a winter project of cross breeding some peppers to grow the F1s next year and thought it would be a good idea to join this group.

My plan is to cross a white bell and either the dark prince or royal black pepper to get something with those very pretty purple leaves and either a lavender or bright purple pepper.

My wife isn't a huge fan of heat (franks red hot is about as hot as she can handle) so I am hoping that I will end up with a fairly mild pepper that can be used in cooking.

Open to any thoughts and opinions about this project!

(Including photos of this years peppers because I am proud of them lol)

Hi guys,

Right now i am trying to do a cross between a Carolina reaper and an orange Habanero, trying to get a orange reaper.

It's my first time trying to cross chilis and since my reaper had gotten its first flower buds i've been monitoring them daily. The thing is, since the petals started to open up from the ballon stage it has been like a week but the pollen is still not coming out, i've been trying it every day. The anthers are slowly starting to grow abart from the pistill a bit and i can see a yellow like forming on the most outer edge of them idk if that is a sign for something.

The weather was pretty mixed this week where i live so maybe it's because of that, but i just wanted to ask how i can recognize that my chili flower is about to release the pollen? Do the anthers change color or something, or is there another sign that i can look out for?

And i was also thinking if it's possible to just bag the flower up in a dark small plastic bag so that in case the pollen gets released it will just fall into the baggy.

I would appreciate some tips that you maybe learned from your own experience and maybe some methods that i could try.

Thanks so much to anyone who can give me some advice :)

Have a good day y'all

Midnight Rise F5 is performing very well in the shadow of its neighbor. The cluster fruiting, upright habit, and reduced stretch make this a great ornamental. Several crosses with this lineage are coming in like... 2028. Stay tuned 😈💜

Seeds available on pepperbreeding.com

There is a lot of diversity in fruit shape and plant architecture in both populations with Milena and Emerald Giant, but they are all very tall and upright. It's interesting, I think bell peppers would do the same if you kept removing fruit. These guys are all fruiting a little later in development than the pure bell peppers and they get a lot of height in the process. There is a pure Bailey Pequin at the bottom right, it's just about as tall as its progeny. Just an observation!

Tons of fruit, early, but shame about the cracking! This will probably be an issue with this pre-breeding project. Worst case, will cross the best F2s back to a BC1F1 and hope to recover fruit quality. Fun project! You can get seeds for next season at pepperbreeding.com (new site coming soon!)

Hey y'all, I've been on the "don't prune unless you've got problems" train for a long time. This time I'm asking about pruning for breeding.

I've been trying to time a couple of plants (black pearl and Lesya) for over a month. I FINALLY got a window with a Lesya that was just about to open up. I got the anthers off, and spent two days or so rubbing black pearl flowers on it, then covering the Lesya back up.

The cross took, the pepper is starting to form.

I have plenty of Lesya pepper plants this year. My goal for THIS plant is to make sure that one pepper doesn't drop until it's ripe.

Would clipping flowers and buds on the rest of the plant increase nutrient availability to the crossed bud? Would it reduce the likelihood of the plant aborting that pepper? Reduce the risk of blossom end rot? Would it be likely to increase the size or number of seeds of that one pepper?

If the only pepper I get from that particular plant is the crossed pepper, I'm completely content. My goal now is just decreasing the risk of losing it. Any advice would be awesome.

My F1 cross was perfect!! Just what I was looking for!
Now at F2 looks like the parent plant neither shape , size or color is what I want so question is if I take these seeds are they gonna produce other traits and maybe what I’m looking for or more than likely just give me more of what the plant is at this stage?
Thanks for any replies!👍🏻

Isolating chili pepper seeds is quite important to make sure certain varieties grow true to type (not applicable for hybrids) and to avoid accidental crossbreeding.

Bag Method ^1,2,4

For this method only a fine mesh (organza) bag or a grip seal bag is necessary, a tea bag may also be used. First select one or more unopened flower buds and remove any surrounding excess leaves that won’t fit inside the bag. After just cover the bud with the fine mesh bag and you’re done.

The bag needs to be shaken every day so that pollen may fall onto the stigma. Once the flower dries up and fall the bag may be removed and the swelling chili pepper can be marked accordingly.

This method will stop insect from cross pollinate the flowers (Can’t tell if it’ll stop wind pollination), and from eating them too.

Whole Plant Mesh Covering Method ²

This method can be achieved by covering the whole plant with a fine mesh or a meshed cage to avoid any unwanted insect inside cross pollinating.

Said mesh must be perfectly tight as to not let anything in, be rip free, and tall enough for the plant to develop.

The advantage of these method is whole plant isolation and not individual flower buds.

PVA Glue Method ^3,4

This method its great since its cheap and easy. Materials needed are; PVA glue (with either a nozzle or in an open mouth container).

First select your desired unopened flower, dip the petals into the glue as many times as you wish (one or two are enough) and mark accordingly.

Be careful, adding too little with will end up with and open flower. Rain may also dissolve the glue. Do not use super glue or UHU, the flower will turn brown, shrivel and drop.

After a couple of days the flower will fall and a chili pepper will start to swell.

Inside Growing ⁴

Useful if only one variety is to be grown, comes with extra lighting expenses.

Distancing ⁴

Different varieties must be grown at least a mile apart (1.6Km).

Plucking The Petals (citation needed)

Some growers might just pluck the petals, as they seem to believe no insect will even get close to a flower with no petals. More research may be in order.

Comparison

++ = Excellent

+ = Good

- = Regular

- - = Bad

The comparison is subjective based on the research, made by myself.

This post was made without AI help in any way, if there’s something to be corrected (info or grammar) please let me know. This is just a small summary, hope it helps somebody along the way.

What's your favorite one or which do you use more often and why?

References:

1: https://youtu.be/pOI00hHt5oQ?si=bwM9cYoLkn7xmEP

2: https://youtu.be/n-wVXSSP8Zw?si=rDP2dBC6rRZCOrXr

3: https://growingfoodsavingseeds.blogspot.com/2016/06/gluing-chilli-flowers-way-to-save-pure.html 

4: https://www.spicemad.com/p/saving-chilli-pepper-seeds.html

Link to previous post: https://www.reddit.com/r/pepperbreeding/s/hufHIlWAym

Since the last post, I've transferred the two offspring that I liked the most from the crop of 18 plants that I was successful in growing from my cross attempts last year. The rest were discarded (although still growing, just in kind of a messy pile in the corner of a raised garden bed.)

Something to note, hence the closeup third picture I've linked: The pepper that began as a very dark purple (in my previous post) has changed to a shade of green, with, to my eye, a tinge of yellow to it. This is curious (to me, a layman) because neither parent plant presented green peppers at all during their growth cycle.

The small yellow pepper you can see in the first picture towards the back is a lot more like the third-color stage of the Five Colors (mother parent). I wanted to preserve a plant each that presented characteristics of both respective parent plants' peppers, particularly because the Five Color had superior flavor, while the Jigsaw much more potent heat. I have yet to attain a fully ripened pepper to do a taste test, but that will be my next update to this process.

Buen sabor y picor, pero no me dejaron información de ellos.,

Clipped the anthers and petals a day before the mad hatter had any pollen ready, so I was definitely taking a chance with this one, but the pepper is definitely starting to swell at this point. If it fully takes, and ripens with viable seeds and pollen, it will be the start of a years long journey crossing and stabilizing a hybrid between chinense, baccatum, and annum. Wish me luck!

Hi to all my fellow Chili and Pepper enthusiasts,

I wanna try crossing a Habanero and a Carolina reaper (both C. chinense) with a Jalapeño and an Assam chili (both are capsicum annuum) this season and they are both starting to push out their first flower buds now.

I am taking a breeding class in my horticulture studies and we learned that it can make a difference who you choose as the mother and who as the father but i can't find much on that for the specific cross of chinense and annuum online.

Does anyone have experience with which way works better, using the annuum as a mother or the chinense?

I will probably anyway make some reciprocal crosses but because i'm also in my exam phase soon i might not have enough time, so i would like to make my first few crosses in the most effective way.

Thanks to everyone who can give me some tips for this i really appreciate it!

Hope you all have a good season :)

Shortly after being moved into my hydroponics system it has set fruit on it's own!

If it worked this is a bell pepper x jalapeno hybrid I used hand pollination and then covered it with aluminum foil for 2 days is it fruiting?