ChilliCrosser

3 species from 3 clades, successful cross confirmed. C.baccatum, C.tovarii & C.eximium rolled into one F1 🌶️🪄🌱

Most of the time it’s as simple as hanging a water droplet from the seed case until it works itself out.

Actually nowhere near as hard, or slow, to germinate as many say it is. Takes damage if cold enough but can also bounce back well from the root ball.

Diagnostic flower incoming in a few weeks 🤞

C.lanceolatum has been flowering under lots of layers of fleece all winter, who says 🌶️ need lots of warmth and heat 🙂 Protection from rain as it’s under glass, no air heating, only gentle bottom warmth from a heated tray 🌱

C.galapagoense underway 🌶️🌱

Wild capsicum seedlings appearing. C.lanceolatum native to southern Mexico, Guatemala & Honduras. C.cardenasii native to Bolivia 🌱🌶️

C.galapagoense from older seed, 28 days to emerge is pretty good for this species even on fresh seed stock 🌱🌶️

Attempt to introduce C.eximium into my C.baccatum var. pendulum x C.tovarii hybrid. That’d be 3 clades, not just 3 species, in the same mix. I’ll almost certainly need to see the flowers on this one to confirm. Trichomes very dominant from the two wilds in this probable F1. 🌶️🌱

Probably C.baccatum var. pendulum x C.eximium F1, early traits looking good. Non-pungent trait in the mix for added interest. 🌶️🌱

Tasty peppers but those look like Jamaican Yellow Mushrooms to me as they are a C.annuum species rather than C.chinense. Tons of mislabelled plants and seeds out there from sellers. bsky.app/profile/chil...

More C.tovarii last week 🌱🌶️

Second from left, a possible candidate F2 selection from my Mini Stripey Starfish project which is an interspecific spin-off from my main project. C.flexuosum to the left, Biquinho to the right for scale. More F2s next year for other flavour and colour options but a good fallback 🌱🌶️

Five in a row but not red yet, CAP 1530 C.eximium 🌶️🌱

Not a serious attempt as I only did a single manual cross per pollen batch. However, just for fun and home grower science, defrosted pollen samples I collected around 4 years ago. 🌶️🌱

First ripe C.tovarii berry of the year, many more to come 🌶️🌱

I was thinking

Wild capsicum berries, some gradually starting to turn, others will take months yet 🌶️🌱

C.lanceolatum 🌶️🌱

Yes and I’m in the process of making other new stripey things using it.

The burn profile is different to cayenne (C.annuum) and C.baccatum such as this are usually less aggressive.

Photo-bombed by blurry insect C.rhomboideum 🌱🌶️

C.lanceolatum 🌱🌶️

C.baccatum var. pendulum 🌱🌶️

I never compost my failed overwinters until the end of the new season. Why? Combination of laziness and having seen miracles. Stand them all in a tray to catch water in a semi-shady part of the garden. I’ll get a cutting at least. C.galapagonese late-July and back to life 🌶️🌱

After the 🐝🌶️🌱 CAP 1530 C.eximium

Reasons to grow the wonderful C.tovarii, volume 72 🌶️🌱

CAP 1530 C.eximium now setting berries 🌶️🌱

The small early ones often don’t have seeds but you’ll get some bigger ones soon enough.

Definitely true for C.flexuosum, I get high germ rates on mine. Fresh, well harvested and dried and then well stored makea a big difference.