Yeah, mine are pretty close to each other too. I always worry about cross polination. How often does it happen?

Stoney

Stoney, it doesnt happen too often but I believe I read somewhere it is around 1%.
Most of my plants are close together too and I do not see too many bees or flies going from 1 flower to another.

However, I was watering some chili's and froze for a minute as a hummingbird fly close by. He sucked the pollen from some of my goat weed pepper flowers and just went down the line and hit the habs and other. Not sure if birds can cross pollinate plantstoo, but it was cool to watch.

Wow!

Yeah, have not seen any bees or hummingbirds near my peppers. They go for the cactus flowers on our hill though.

Stoney

Yea, that was a first for me.

I see them go for the African daisy flowers most of the time.

Pepper flowers are full of their own pollen. I believe it would take perfect timing and the perfect shot to get a cross, hence the 1%. The pistil (female part) is surrounded by stamen (male parts) that produce pollen. Even when you are trying to create a cross on purpose, you need to remove petals before the flower opens and remove all of the stamen before they produce pollen then introduce the pollen you want. Freak occurrences do happen but I wouldnâÂÂt worry about it unless you plan on selling the seeds. Crosses are fun anyways. Heck you never know, you might âÂÂcreateâ the next Carolina reaper.

On a side note- when you see flowers tap the trunk of your plant or even shake branches firmly but lightly. I do this almost every day, until the Flowers set pods. This will help shake the pollen off of the stamen and onto the pistil. I have noticed this helps plants set pods sooner and it should also help eliminate crosses.

Here is a link that might be useful: cross

Hummingbird is not really a bird. It is some kind of moth.

No moth is that aggressive. Ever seen the fierce aerial battles when they discover a new feeder?

Now, there is a "hummingbird moth" that looks and acts a lot like the avian variety around flowers. They're cool too.

Dennis