Hardy Chili (Capsicum flexuosum)

[Mikkel ImGrimm]

Anyone have experience with Hardy Chili (Capsicum flexuosum)? It is supposed to be cold hardy. Can anyone confirm this?

http://unusualediblesandtheirwildrelatives.blogspot.com/2018/02/hardy-chili-capsicum-flexuosum.html

[WayneA]

My only experience is not being able to germinate it and having cuttings of it die in the post. Will be giving it another go this year so will report back.

This chap is planning to test it this outside this winter in the UK I believe: https://radix4roots.blogspot.com/

[Dominic J]

Intriguing. Does it hybridize with common peppers?

[Garrett Schantz]

I think it can cross with chinense and annum, few others pretty easily. It also has some self incompatibility issues which could be used for breeding projects.
Offspring won't be as hardy unless you do a bunch of backcrosses. Still extends season.

[AndrewB]

Very interesting. Might add this to my wish list. 

[Dominic J]

I think it can cross with chinense and annum, few others pretty easily. It also has some self incompatibility issues which could be used for breeding projects.
Offspring won't be as hardy unless you do a bunch of backcrosses. Still extends season.

I don't think the species itself is that amazingly hardy, but as you said, it could extend the season a little, by helping them resist late or early frost (or near-frost). This alone can potentially add about 20% growing days around here, on a not so atypical year.

[Garrett Schantz]

One flexuosum seed germinated  / sprouted today. I would like for at least two plants to come up, just for pollination/self-incompatibility reasons. Having more seed to work with next year, or for distribution would be great.

Thinking of attempting some hybrids using this if everything goes well.
Yaki Blue Fawn(Capsicum chinense) Apparently descended from an chinense and annum. Bhut Jolokia x Filius Blue. Good producer, smooth black / blue stems, fruit. 87 days to maturity, which isn't bad for a hot pepper. Probably has some fun genetics to begin with.
Murasaki(Capsicum annuum) - Nice shape, purple flower. Unsure about taste, haven't tried it.
Chinese Five Color(Capsicum annuum)
Bleeding Borg 9(Capsicum chinense)
Cap 1141(Capsicum praetermissum) Very nice looking flowers from images I have seen.

If my Mira peppers germinate, I will try those out as well. They are a small sweet pepper, compact, 70 days to maturity. They are rather bland even at full maturity. Most of my pepper seeds are old, may or may not germinate. I have Violet Sparkle peppers, Rezha Macedonian, Black Hungarian - none have germinated yet. Chinese Five Color and Cap 1141 germinated within a week of sowing.

Experimental Farm Network has some things like Mountain Roaster Pepper(Capsicum annum), an early compact pepper plant. Things like this would probably work well with flexuosum hybridization projects - short season pepper growers might benefit quite a bit from a few extra weeks of peppers ripening / developing.

I'm doing this as a small side project. Ideally I would keep the flower type, larger fruit size, earlier maturity and of course the frost tolerance - this would all be tedious considering I may have to backcross to F1s, F2s - possibly the parents for these things, and needing to stabilize the variety to make sure everything is fine.

I suppose others could use whatever I end up creating as further breeding material.

[Mikkel ImGrimm]

Did you treat the seed specially or did you just sow it?

[Garrett Schantz]

Did you treat the seed specially or did you just sow it?

I just sowed them without treatment on February 22nd - it surfaced yesterday. From what I have read the germination can be erratic. So it could takes months for some seed, weeks for others.

[Mikkel ImGrimm]

Thank you. I also have seeds. Let's see what happens...

[Michalina Hunter]

I've grown C. flexuosum for 2 seasons now. The first year I didn't get any fruit- only one plant grew large enough to flower and it didn't have a pollenizer. I've heard they stay small for a while, but could be the poor soil they were in too.

All 6 plants survived the winter in mid-Vancouver Island, Canada. It got down to -10 degrees Celsius last winter. They were in an unheated greenhouse so the soil stayed pretty dry. Some took a very long time to sprout in the spring-one plant waited until mid-June and surprisingly has not flowered yet. They all came back from the roots, but maybe in a milder winter they would leaf out from the branches and get an earlier start on flowering.

I just made some crosses with some peppers I'm growing. They seemed to have worked with Jalapeño and C. tovarii only. Fingers crossed. I do also have mountain roaster and Italian swarm peppers from Wild Mountain Seeds, so I'll try crossing them again.

Happy to share seeds if I'm successful!

[Greenie DeS]

I have seeds on the way from Small Island Seed Co in BC, Canada. How did everyone else's do? I'm hoping I'll get some germination.

Definitely interested in seeds from any crosses.

[AndrewB]

Pretty Interesting species. Especially on the cold hardiness.

Interestingly the pepper species that was fastest at growing from seed to fruit was a Capsicum baccatum "Sugar Rush Peach". Never grown that species before, but now highly interested in it. Brought all my peppers inside this winter. Need a proper grow tent soon and better lights. Peppers were one of the few things that actually grew for me this year. Despite not starting them inside and messing up their soil quite a bit many germinated and survived. Looking forward to getting more into pepper growing and future breeding.

please keep me posted.

[AndrewB]

Is anyone else getting interested in the baccatum species?

[Justin Jardinier]

Is anyone else getting interested in the baccatum species?

Yes. I enjoyed 'Aji Delight' and am trying to cross with it. Interested in what its genes might have to offer to an annuum population.