It's hit or miss with cross pollination, since peppers self pollinate there is always that slight possibility. After the next year when you save seeds it's possible. I usually get more true to the original parent plant and less of crosses even though mine are two foot away from each other or closer.

Are you saying that the bells crossed with the jalapenos and the resulting seeds grew a hot bell, or that the bells became 'hot' from proximity?

Hi rgreen48(7a),

You have got it, so the actual bell peppers became hot. I didn't save the seeds or anything.

Cheers,

Ben

Hmmm... If I'm understanding this correctly, more than likely you got bell seeds that where already a bit on the spicy side (bells are known to be up to 1000 scovilles). Or, is it possible your samples were contaminated on the cutting board?

Peppers produce 'heat' through genetics. Proximity would only affect the spiciness of the next generation... if there were cross pollination.

This year I only grew 2 varieties... a long cayenne, and a cubanelle. They were both grown right along side one another in the bed. The cubanelle is a hybrid, so I won't be saving seeds. The cayenne however, is an heirloom. I am kind of hoping I'll get a cross and see if I like the results. A half cayenne, and half cubanelle is intriguing. Unfortunately, crosses involving a hybrid are more difficult to stabilize.

An interesting discussion on this phenomena from a couple years back.

I always grow my peppers, both sweet and hot, in the same bed with rows less than 18 inches apart (plants are spaced 12 inches apart in the rows). Have never had a sweet pepper be hot yet.

Rodney

So maybe I got a duff bell pepper form the garden centre. I can't remember if the other one displayed the same characteristics, as I had two of them.

With this in mind, say I was to save the seeds of each of my chilli plants for next season. What is the best method of keeping them pure and avoiding cross pollination. I have seen that some people put mesh over them, but is this reliable. I am thinking that it wouldn't prevent crawling insects from doing it, e.g. ants.

Thoughts?

Cheers,

Ben

Just to be sure everyone understands, the characteristics of the fruit are entirely determined by the plant they are growing on, not the plant that pollinized it.

Think my question got missed:

Say I was to save the seeds of each of my chilli plants for next season. What is the best method of keeping them pure and avoiding cross pollination. I have seen that some people put mesh over them, but is this reliable. I am thinking that it wouldn't prevent crawling insects from doing it, e.g. ants.

Thoughts?

Cheers,

Ben

Well, yes bags are often used, and the mesh is pretty fine. Just be careful to tie tight enough to keep out the crawlies, but not so tight as to damage the stem. Some people bag entire plants with either tulle, or insect barrier row cover.

The toughest for backyard gardeners is isolation by distance. Perhaps though you have a friend or family member who gardens and you could grow what you want, and they could grow another and you could share. This one has the obvious problems.

Depending on your gardening space you could build a mini row tunnel.

As far as the crawlies go, as long as the plant leaves aren't touching, the odds of cross pollination aren't very high.

To get the best protection in a small space, of all the choices, I'd go with bagging an entire plant. If you bury the bottom of the bag with soil, even the crawlies wouldn't find it easy to get inside. I'm not too sure about pollination though. With tomatoes it's recommended to vibrate, shake, or somehow manually disturb the flowers so the pollen will be knocked off the stamen. I don't know if it's the same with peppers.

You could use the Fatalii.net http://www.fatalii.net/Growing_chile_peppers/Breeding example of cross pollination to ensure pure pollination by collecting pollen from the plant and force pollinating. You would only need three or four peppers to get a good stock of seeds for next season

I have had outstanding luck doing the same thing. Interesting.