Crossing Pepper Strains
Creating a Frankenchilli
Can you cross any kind of chilli ?
Is it possible to cross a sweet bell pepper with a super hot Jolokia ?
Can you create a Frankenstein chilli from different pepperparts ?
The answer my pets, is : yes and no.
What will happen when I cross two very different types of peppers ?
Initially, a whole lot of nothing : the fruit will be completely normal. It will be the seeds inside that pepper that contain a (random) mixture of the genetic material from both parents.
To see the result of your cross-pollenation, you will have to take those seeds, plant them the next season, and wait to see what comes up.
I know that sucks major ass, but you're just gonna have to be patient.
Then there's this :
As shown in the chart, C. Chinense is kind of a runaround. It will readily cross-pollenate with a C. Annuum, (which means they are probably closely related), occasionally get freaky-deaky with a C. Baccatum as well as with C. Frutescens. On the other hand, C. Pubescens, will only cross with peppers of strictly it's own species. Cross pollination within the same species will occur easily.
To improve chances of a succesful cross pollenation, you will have to emasculate the flower. Get your learn on here. If you emasculate the flower too early, it may not yet have fully developed reproductive organs.
Crosses between C. annuum and C. chinense are fertile. When C. Frutescens fertilises C. Annuum there will be no fertile seeds, but strangely, a reverse C. Annuum fertilises C. Frutescens scenario results in SOME fertile seeds.
It's been a while since I was incolladge,colage, college but I'll try to explain how it
works.
Keep in mind that inheritance patterns are often more complex than predicted by simple Mendelian genetics, so bear with me (not a real bear of course).
Lets say the gene for pungency is called R, the gene for red color is C.
In writing, uppercaps indicates a dominant, and lowercaps a recessive trait. So in this notation, if a chilli has CC or Cc it will be red. If it has the alleles cc it lacks the dominant gene for red color and wil be yellow.
We can already determine some things : Both jolokia and bell pep must be pure bred strains because all individuals in the F1 generation
are hot and red. We also know that pungency and red color must be dominant because the F1 plants all express these characteristics. (If the color yellow had
been dominant the fruits would have been yellow.)
So, the Jolokia phenotype is CCRR, and bell pepper is ccrr. As both pass one of their two genes for that trait on at random, all possible combitions are : CcRr, cCRr, CcrR, and cCrR phenotypes.
What we got here, my fellow dorkweeds, is an interspecific hybrid with identical phenotypes.
All of the F1 individuals are red and hot. They are all heterozygous (that's 3 times word pointage for playing 'words with friends') and all possess the dominant genes that express red color and pungency.
But if we cross the F1 individuals, the next generation (F2) will look (and probably taste) very different. WHY ????
That may sound like a mystery even Robert Stack can't solve, but the answer is really quite simple : Even though the F1 do not show the traits for yellow color and no pungency themselves, they are carriers of the recessive gene, which they can still pass on to later generations.
Now if we cross the F1 with one another, we get the second generation, AKA the F2.
The chart on the left shows all possible combinations for their phenotypes
The F2 will produce some very different looking chillies in comparison to their F1 parents !!!
Some fruits will be be bigger, smoother, rounder, or pointier than others, you may say.
Yeah, but if you'll shut up for a minute Perry Mason, it's for the sake of this virtual example that we are only looking at fruit color and pungency.These combinations will produce four distinct phenotypes in a 9:3:3:1 ratio.
9 plants will have red, hot peppers
3 plants will have yellow and hot peppers
3 plants will have red and mild peppers
1 plant will have yellow, mild peppers
Let's say we want to create a new strain, of peppers that are yellow and hot.
We must then eliminate all of the red peppers from further crossing. This leaves us with 3 candidates :
The third and fourth in the third row, and the third one in the fourth row.
We're gonna chuck the one with phenotype 'ccrr' because it's yellow but not hot. Remember this.
After crossing the F2 plants with the desired characteristics (yellow and hot), we will narrow F3 genotypes down to :
ccRR (4 out of 9)
ccRr (4 out of 9)
ccrr (1 out of 9) ...Where the hell did he come from ?
The probability of F3 having yellow fruits is 100 %
The probability of F3 fruits being hot is NOT 100 %.
Almost half of these bastards will be heterozygous for the gene r, and the bitch is, we don't know which ones, since they don't express the trait for not being hot.
If we eliminate the mild pepper from our experiment once more and cross ccRR x ccRr, the F4 is 100 % likely to be yellow and hot. Unfortunately, 50% of those F4 individuals will also be heterozygous for genotype Rr and when they cross, they will theoretically produce individuals with phenotype 'ccrr'.
In udder woids the mild chilli will miraculously reappear in later generations to haunt us with it's pussy non-pungency.
For stronger plants we need more genetic diversity. Depending on the characteristics you are aiming for, you will need to cross your F1 of F2 back with one of its parent varieties, in this case either a yellow bell pepper, or a jolokia (not the actual bell or jolokia plant you started out with, but another pure bred strain of that kind). An obvious way to increase the gene pool would be starting out crossing multiple Bell / Jolokia plants and mixing their respective F1.
One thing is for sure : you're gonna have to have a lot of time on your hands, like doing a 15 year stretch in prison, or be a monk, like Gregor Mendel.
You're going to have to be very, very patient and/or very lucky to create a stable, new chilli strain.
Even though each consequent generation will have increasingly uniform characteristics, it takes about 8 generations at least to create a stable new strain.
Good luck !
Tip to the hat to Junglerain (the creator of the white 7-pod pictured far left) for sending some seeds my way. Thanks Grant!
These fantastic white chillies are the result of crossing 7-pod and white habanero strains for 4 generations in the exact same way as described earlier : The small percentage of white fruits that started appearing in the F2 was selected for further crossing. With each subsequent generation there will be less chance of the chillies being anything but pure white.
Each of the other pictures above confirms the extreme dominance for red colored fruits in chillies :
Wild Brazil (yellow) x Jolokia (red), Habanero (orange) x Lombok (red), Bell Pepper (yellow) x Jolokia (red) : No matter what you throw in the mix, the F1 is uniformly red, every single time ! Goes to show how strong that red shit is.
In all likelyness, ANY crossing involving a red strain will yield 100 % red hybrids in the F1.
Another thing the other pictures tell us is that crossing two very differently sized strains generally gives average sized individuals in the F1. All of the fruits are somewhere in the middle, and there doesn't seem to be a strong genetic dominance for big or small size.
Similarly, crossing a round or bulbous peppers with long or pointy one, nearly always gives bullet or torpedo shaped fruits in the F1. A mixture of both parents. This implies there would be other factors or more complicated mechanisms at play for these traits than there are for color.
HUGE pointy pepper (sweet, fleshy, red) x Jolokia
HUGE pointy pepper x Thai demon
Fatalii x Yellow Bell (both are yellow already)
Is it possible to cross a sweet bell pepper with a super hot Jolokia ?
Can you create a Frankenstein chilli from different pepperparts ?
The answer my pets, is : yes and no.
What will happen when I cross two very different types of peppers ?
Initially, a whole lot of nothing : the fruit will be completely normal. It will be the seeds inside that pepper that contain a (random) mixture of the genetic material from both parents.
To see the result of your cross-pollenation, you will have to take those seeds, plant them the next season, and wait to see what comes up.
I know that sucks major ass, but you're just gonna have to be patient.
Then there's this :
problem 1 - Not all chillies will cross
Five strains of chilli peppers have been domesticated (there are also countless wild types, not discussed here). The domesticated species are : Capsicum Annuum (bell peppers, cayenne, paprika, and jalapenos), Capsicum Baccatum (aji type chillies), Capsicum Chinense (hot Habanero types), Capsicum Frutescens (including Tabasco), and Capsicum Pubescens (Hairy varieties, like the Rocoto). Some, but not all of these strains can be crossed. The fact that some strains can cross-pollenate, doesn't automatically mean they will.| Male / Female | C. Annuum | C. Baccatum | C. Chinense | C. Frutescens | C.Pubescens | C. Annuum | +/+ | +/- | +/+ | +/- | -/- | C. Baccatum | +/- | +/+ | +/- | +/- | -/- | C. Chinense | +/+ | +/- | +/+ | +/- | -/- | C. Frutescens | +/- | +/- | +/- | +/- | -/- | C. Pubescens | -/- | -/- | -/- | -/- | +/+ |
|---|
As shown in the chart, C. Chinense is kind of a runaround. It will readily cross-pollenate with a C. Annuum, (which means they are probably closely related), occasionally get freaky-deaky with a C. Baccatum as well as with C. Frutescens. On the other hand, C. Pubescens, will only cross with peppers of strictly it's own species. Cross pollination within the same species will occur easily.
problem 2 - Chillies are self pollinating
Chilli pepper flowers have both male and female reproductive organs. They may have even already pollinated themselves by the time the flowers open. That would probably interfere with your attempts to create a Frankenchilli.To improve chances of a succesful cross pollenation, you will have to emasculate the flower. Get your learn on here. If you emasculate the flower too early, it may not yet have fully developed reproductive organs.
problem 3 - bad seeds
Even though different types of chillies may cross, the intraspecific hybrid produced may have seeds that are not, or only partly viable.Crosses between C. annuum and C. chinense are fertile. When C. Frutescens fertilises C. Annuum there will be no fertile seeds, but strangely, a reverse C. Annuum fertilises C. Frutescens scenario results in SOME fertile seeds.
Bellokia
As we learned, C. Annuum and C. Chinense will cross. A German chilehead actually managed to cross a yellow sweet bell pepper (C. Annuum) and a Bhut jolokia (C. Chinense) and this is what happened : Bell Pepper |  Bhut Jolokia |  F1 | Color | Yellow | Red | Red | Surface | Smooth | Wrinkly | Smooth | Size | Very big | Medium | Medium |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pungency | None | Atomic | Super hot | Shape | Blocky / lobed | Cone | Rounded cone | Seeds | Very many | Few | Few | Flavor | Sweet Pepper | Floral | Sweet Pepper | Yield | Small | Decent | Decent |
Break that shit down
Some guy named Gregor Mendel spent most of his life trying to wrap his brain around this, and figured all
this shit out. Way to go Greg !
OK folks you're gonna need some knowledge and understanding of basic genetics for this.It's been a while since I was in
Keep in mind that inheritance patterns are often more complex than predicted by simple Mendelian genetics, so bear with me (not a real bear of course).
Lets say the gene for pungency is called R, the gene for red color is C.
In writing, uppercaps indicates a dominant, and lowercaps a recessive trait. So in this notation, if a chilli has CC or Cc it will be red. If it has the alleles cc it lacks the dominant gene for red color and wil be yellow.
The parents
| Jolokia | Bell pepper | CCRR | ccrr |
So, the Jolokia phenotype is CCRR, and bell pepper is ccrr. As both pass one of their two genes for that trait on at random, all possible combitions are : CcRr, cCRr, CcrR, and cCrR phenotypes.
The F1
 CcRr | cCRr |
CcrR | cCrR |
All of the F1 individuals are red and hot. They are all heterozygous (that's 3 times word pointage for playing 'words with friends') and all possess the dominant genes that express red color and pungency.
But if we cross the F1 individuals, the next generation (F2) will look (and probably taste) very different. WHY ????
That may sound like a mystery even Robert Stack can't solve, but the answer is really quite simple : Even though the F1 do not show the traits for yellow color and no pungency themselves, they are carriers of the recessive gene, which they can still pass on to later generations.
The F2
| CR | Cr | cR | cr | CR | CCRR |
CCRr |
CcRR |
CcRr |
Cr | CCRr |
CCrr |
CcRr |
Ccrr |
cR | CcRR |
CcRr |
 ccRR |
ccRr |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| cr | CcRr |
Ccrr |
ccrR |
ccrr |
The F2 will produce some very different looking chillies in comparison to their F1 parents !!!
Some fruits will be be bigger, smoother, rounder, or pointier than others, you may say.
Yeah, but if you'll shut up for a minute Perry Mason, it's for the sake of this virtual example that we are only looking at fruit color and pungency.These combinations will produce four distinct phenotypes in a 9:3:3:1 ratio.
9 plants will have red, hot peppers
3 plants will have yellow and hot peppers
3 plants will have red and mild peppers
1 plant will have yellow, mild peppers
Let's say we want to create a new strain, of peppers that are yellow and hot.
We must then eliminate all of the red peppers from further crossing. This leaves us with 3 candidates :
The third and fourth in the third row, and the third one in the fourth row.
We're gonna chuck the one with phenotype 'ccrr' because it's yellow but not hot. Remember this.
The F3
| cR | cR | cr | cR | ccRR | ccRR | ccRr |
cr | ccRr | ccRr | ccrr |
cR | ccRR | ccRR | ccRr |
|---|
ccRR (4 out of 9)
ccRr (4 out of 9)
ccrr (1 out of 9) ...Where the hell did he come from ?
The probability of F3 having yellow fruits is 100 %
The probability of F3 fruits being hot is NOT 100 %.
Almost half of these bastards will be heterozygous for the gene r, and the bitch is, we don't know which ones, since they don't express the trait for not being hot.
If we eliminate the mild pepper from our experiment once more and cross ccRR x ccRr, the F4 is 100 % likely to be yellow and hot. Unfortunately, 50% of those F4 individuals will also be heterozygous for genotype Rr and when they cross, they will theoretically produce individuals with phenotype 'ccrr'.
In udder woids the mild chilli will miraculously reappear in later generations to haunt us with it's pussy non-pungency.
Problem 4 - inbreeding
These plants will be genetically weak as every single individual descends from two specific plants.For stronger plants we need more genetic diversity. Depending on the characteristics you are aiming for, you will need to cross your F1 of F2 back with one of its parent varieties, in this case either a yellow bell pepper, or a jolokia (not the actual bell or jolokia plant you started out with, but another pure bred strain of that kind). An obvious way to increase the gene pool would be starting out crossing multiple Bell / Jolokia plants and mixing their respective F1.
One thing is for sure : you're gonna have to have a lot of time on your hands, like doing a 15 year stretch in prison, or be a monk, like Gregor Mendel.
You're going to have to be very, very patient and/or very lucky to create a stable, new chilli strain.
Even though each consequent generation will have increasingly uniform characteristics, it takes about 8 generations at least to create a stable new strain.
Good luck !
Tip to the hat to Junglerain (the creator of the white 7-pod pictured far left) for sending some seeds my way. Thanks Grant!
These fantastic white chillies are the result of crossing 7-pod and white habanero strains for 4 generations in the exact same way as described earlier : The small percentage of white fruits that started appearing in the F2 was selected for further crossing. With each subsequent generation there will be less chance of the chillies being anything but pure white.
Each of the other pictures above confirms the extreme dominance for red colored fruits in chillies :
Wild Brazil (yellow) x Jolokia (red), Habanero (orange) x Lombok (red), Bell Pepper (yellow) x Jolokia (red) : No matter what you throw in the mix, the F1 is uniformly red, every single time ! Goes to show how strong that red shit is.
In all likelyness, ANY crossing involving a red strain will yield 100 % red hybrids in the F1.
Another thing the other pictures tell us is that crossing two very differently sized strains generally gives average sized individuals in the F1. All of the fruits are somewhere in the middle, and there doesn't seem to be a strong genetic dominance for big or small size.
Similarly, crossing a round or bulbous peppers with long or pointy one, nearly always gives bullet or torpedo shaped fruits in the F1. A mixture of both parents. This implies there would be other factors or more complicated mechanisms at play for these traits than there are for color.
2012 Frankenchilli projects :
I plan on experimenting with some Frankenchillies of my own :HUGE pointy pepper (sweet, fleshy, red) x Jolokia
HUGE pointy pepper x Thai demon
Fatalii x Yellow Bell (both are yellow already)
