Yesterday I went through my 2019 breeding notes from my Scotch Bonnet Remix project.
I’m planning out what selections to grow this summer.
(This was a cross between Scotch Bonnet peppers and some sweet Capsicum annuums. A cross that everyone tells me shouldn’t happen! Read more about the Scotch Bonnet Remix origin story here)
The pictures are from the F2 generation. I sort fruit not only by colour and shape but also heat level. Some plants were completely mild!
I’ll be growing out each selection separately to start stabilizing each line
I’m pretty excited to see what will happen with the F3 generation.
Especially with 901-19 – this yellow pepper was so sweet. In fact some animal (mouse? vole?) had eaten about half the fruit on the plant.
And 901-25 – this little cutie packed a solid dose of heat. Unfortunately it barely had any seeds.
A lot of the selections I grow out this year will not make it to 2021.
I’m expecting I might be surprised by some new favourites this summer!
Do you have any exciting breeding projects for 2020?
Dan, great write-up on this Scotch Bonnet cross! I am new to growing peppers this year and looking at doing some crosses of my own. I have read a few of your articles regarding this but I had one question for you.
You say you separate the pods by plant and then by phenotype. When it comes to heat and saving seeds for the next generation, you would have to taste that exact pepper for capsaicin levels correct? Does the capsaicin level vary for each pod on the same plant? I am just not familiar with the dominant/recessive traits of peppers all too well and wasn’t sure.
Hopefully that is not too confusing and hopefully you can clarify that for me, I would greatly appreciate it!
Good luck on these peppers, they look like an amazing cross! Scotch Bonnets are one of my favorite peppers to make sauce out of so I cannot imagine the flavor of these with the added sweetness!
Hi Josh,
Each plant is an individual with its own genetic makeup. So in a mixed population like this, you have to taste a pepper from each plant to evaluate the capsaicin levels from that plant.
There can be a bit of variation within peppers of the same plant but only a bit. It is highly unlikely that one pod on a plant would 10 000 Scovilles and another pod 50 000 Scovilles. A super hot will still be super hot. A mildly hot will be mildly hot.
That variation is most likely do to physiological differences: maturity, irrigation when it matured, maybe sunlight? All the peppers on the same plant should all have the same genetic potential.
So tasting one pepper per plant will do the trick. If you like that pepper, then you can save the seeds from any fruit on that pepper.
Now, what those seeds will give the next generation will depend on how stable your peppers are!
In my situation, I’m expecting to see some children that are somewhat different from their parents. Different in shape, size, and heat. Maybe even a bit of colour diversity.
However there likely won’t be as much diversity as in the previous generation.
Happy pepper tasting!
Dan
Thanks a lot Dan for the reply! I have been doing so much research on this lately and also found a blog where a Biology expert (PHD) discusses this in great detail. There is so much to learn and so many neat things regarding pepper crosses!
I hope your peppers work out great and happy growing!!