Hardy Chili (Capsicum flexuosum)

[Justin Jardinier]

I managed to get some seeds from annuum x flexuosum. So that's possible. Unfortunately no germination, and I don't have time to focus on that at the moment, but it seems worth pursuing by anyone interested to do so.

[Chance]

Well done Justin.  How many pollinations did you do?  What was the rough seed number per fruit ? 

I may get around to trying this with some other species as mothers like chinense or baccatum. 

[Diane Whitehead]

Flexuosum did not germinate for me.  I'll have to try again this year.

[Justin Jardinier]

Well done Justin.  How many pollinations did you do?  What was the rough seed number per fruit ? 

I don't quite remember, I didn't take notes for that project, Maybe... between 25~60 attempts? With multiple mothers, and multiple flexuosum varieties. I got 2 or 3 fruits only, all using flexuosum from Paraguay. I forget if only 1, or 2, had seeds. Total something like 4 or 5 seeds.

I can't remember which other species they managed to cross with in the papers, but I have a feeling they might have been unable to with baccatum. It might be worth trying to the species which the folk in the papers succeeded with if your time is limited. Otherwise for sure, make hundreds of attempts with all 3 species and see what comes!

I think it would be interesting to use \plant preservative' to increase seed germination chances, I might try that if I get more successful crosses. An Diane, I was wondering about that even for germinating flexuosum itself, which is hard. Can take a few weeks, and so mould issues can be tricky! I hope I can learn to germinate things better over time but using that preservative stuff might be worth it for me until my skills improve.

It does help if the seed is fresh. And it might help if it gets a bit dry sometimes. It seems sometimes seed that hasn't germinated can be triggered into doing so by drying out a bit, then rehydrating. Like might happen by accident. Or in nature.

[Weston Adams]

Hi,
I'm curious if anyone has made any more attempts at these cold-hardy Capsicum hybrids. They sound very interesting...

I'm suprised that the cold hardiness of C. flexuosum hasn't been utilized already in developing frost-resistant lines!

Weston

[AndrewB]

Anyone have sources? The only one on a quick search is in Wales in the UK.

https://welshdragonchilli.weebly.com/

[Diane Whitehead]

Small Island Seed Company in Canada sells seeds.

https://www.smallislandseedco.com

[Jordy]

I had 10 seeds from Welsh dragon seed seller, half of them germinated this year (februari/march) in the window. I used the zipbag method. I put 3 plants in a 3L pot and they do just fine. Their hight is around 50-75cm and they bloom alot more then normal pepper or bell pepper plants. i got seeds this year with some had 3 seeds in a fruit. This winter will be tested how much they can take in my unheated greenhouse.

[Weston Adams]

Justin, so you used annuum as the seed parent? Are you pretty confident that you didn't have a self-pollination event generating the seeds?

[Jordy]

Update on the flexuosum. They survived the winter with easy. Fall had high humidity which caused grey mold on the leaves/twigs or the dead flowers. Its easy to prevent with cutting the moldy parts away. There was like 50/75% leaf fall during cold periods but the old leaves from last year are dropping while new growth is starting. I put one outside the greenhouse to see the difference between green house with open ventilation and outside. At first no sunburn but after a long period of sunny days lots of new growth and twigs died.
I put the damaged plant in the shade of a rose and it recovered.

[Diane Whitehead]

I'm trying again.  I bought another packet of seeds, sowed all 11 in mid February and am still waiting for germination.

[Adrian]

Hi diane what is your température?
https://www.les-tomos.fr/tomowiki/doku.php/tutoriels/capsicum_pour_les_nuls/germination_des_piments
I sow pepper in hermetic box with transparent cover for make mini-greenhouse.Its more easy.

[Diane Whitehead]

I put the seed pots on an electric heat pad with a plastic dome over top. The soil is probably about 20 C.

[Adrian]

20°C is a little low.
For others species they recomanded a température between 25 and 27°C
If nothing is germinated and you have a sunny day you take little of risks to put the plastic dome at full sunny i made that for wake up the sleeping of my olds seeds.

You can should dip again the seeds during one day.

If you have sand paper you should sand the seeds after dip them.