Emily, I have used Tulle bags to isolate my blooms. It has worked 100% for me. However, there is always the chance. Just like human contraceptives are not 100%. I have gotten away from it as I see very few crosses even with open pollination in close proximity. Actually, I dont really think I have even harvested any crossed seed from my plants. At least, not from what I am aware of yet.
If you do bag your blooms, I would be confident in a 99.9% chance of it being pure. If you don't, I would expect something in the 90-95% purity range.
If you want to ensure 100% purity, you will have to likely move out into the wide open country side. If you have neighbors growing bell peppers, you still run the risk even if your peppers are separated. A bee can and does fly a long ways in search of sources of nectar.
Bag them and sleep well at night.
Bruce

@esox07 - Thank you! That was very helpful. I'm pretty new at this and just wanted to make sure the seed I saved next year would be pure. I'm glad to hear that tulle bags worked for you and I think I'll give them a try. : )

Agreed with Bruce.

There is one easy trick you can use in addition to tulle fabric, and that's to add a drop of elmers glue to the tip of a flower that's nearly ready to open. Then just throw the fabric over it afterwards.

Overkill? It most certainly is.

Steve

Good suggestions. Shortly after the pod/pods is/are formed you can remove the tulle and tag it until maturity.

I have a question too: do c. chinese and c. annum (or others) cross? In other words, do superhots cross with sweet peppers ?

I use tulle too and love it. but don't get it at the craft store, the ones there are small (at least at our stores), I get mine on Amazon and have a range of sizes, I have some that are 6" x 10" so I can bag a large area and have a bunch of blooms. Also, when it gets really hot, the fruit seems to set better in the bigger bags, they might stay a bit cooler.

I've tried the glue a ton of times and have lost every single bloom I ever put it on. I gave up.

Pam

I got my tulle at Walmart in the fabric/craft section. It was only 98 cents a yard. For a few bucks, you can make a ton of bags.
Yes, once the blooms get fertilized and you notice pods forming on all the blooms in the bag, you can pull the bag. But make sure you put a twist tie or tie a string on each individual pod so that you will know which ones were bagged when it comes time to harvest.
Bruce

Bruce
How do you attach the tulle baggie?I asume you would
use needle and thread or do you use another method?
Tom.

That's why I like to buy the bags, they already come with a drawstring. Yeah, it's cheaper to make them, but a lot easier to buy them premade. ;-)
Pam

That's why I like to buy the bags, they already come with a drawstring. Yeah, it's cheaper to make them, but a lot easier to buy them premade. ;-)
Pam

I bought the fabric and then since my wife doesn't share the passion I have for growing peppers, I broke out the sewing machine and made them at several different sizes. I find that you always need bigger bags than you think you will. Then, I take a needle with thread and weave it in and out around the opening of the bag I just sewed with the machine and make "a drawstring". Then you just wait for the plant to shoot out a branch with several unopened buds near the end and bag it using the drawstring to close it and secure it around the branch below the buds. Like I said though, make sure the bag is much bigger and longer than the branch at the time you bag it because it will grow and grow a lot and soon it will be really cramped in the bag if it isn't big enough.
Bruce

Here is a photo of a plant that I bagged last summer.

uh huh.. and that's why I say, give someone $10 for 100 and let them do all the work. ;-)

Pam

Pam, doing it yourself is part of the fun. It is the offseason and not much else to do pepper wise. By your logic, I would be picking up my peppers at the local super market each week instead of growing them. But yah, if you are doing hundreds of them, it might be wise to let someone else do it for 10 cents a bag. Actually, I only bagged a few plants each season although I fabricated about a dozen or so bags.
Besides, I get to make my wife jealous by making them with the sewing machine on my own. She didn't think I could do it but I called her on it...turned out pretty damn good too if I do say so myself. And, actually, I never even really considered there might be a source to buy them.
Bruce

[smirk] @ Bruce & Pam

I compromise between purchased pre-made bags and fancy home made solutions. I don't have ready access to tulle so I just wrap and tie shade cloth around branches I want to isolate pods on. Has worked for me so far ;-) I have in the past used "you fill" mesh tea bags.

sjetski, I tried the gluing the bud before it flowers a couple of years ago. While good in theory, I'm not convinced it works in practice. I dipped four buds in glue and a few days later all four busted loose into bloom.

seysonn, regarding "do c. chinese and c. annum (or others) cross?" See link below. GW's new page formatting screws up the display but you can see most results.

Here is a link that might be useful: Which Peppers Will Cross-Pollinate?

This post was edited by ottawapepper on Tue, Jan 28, 14 at 19:39

Come to think of it, i probably lost about half of my blooms with the glue method. I kept thinking it was the tags yanking them off in the wind, but maybe it was the glue after all ...

Normally i use fabric, or plant isolation, but i went heavy with the glue in 2013.

Steve

This post was edited by sjetski on Wed, Jan 29, 14 at 0:24

Just to offer an alternative, you could cover the entire plant/row. Might be overkill though.

Rick

Bruce.... offseason????? OFFSEASON?????? I've been germinating seeds since the week before Thanksgiving and potting them up since Mid Dec. I don't have much of an offseason. And about 4-5 bags per plant @ 100+ plants.. I just don't have the time to make my own bags. By buying them I can spend the time I didn't waste making bags either working in the greenhouse or enjoying my 6 dogs. ;-) Or, maybe brushing them or grinding their nails down. Things I never seem to have time for.

oh, and like Bill I have used shade cloth. I have even cut it and covered the entire plant.. That was easy, but it caused infestation of aphids. I have about 100 various sizes of pieces of shade cloth cut up. I was going to glue it to make bags and figured it's easier to just collect it up around the stem.
Pam

Thanks everyone for all of the helpful advice! Pepper-heads are such helpful and generous people. : ) I scoped out some of those bags at Wal-mart yesterday, and might consider making them with my sewing machine like Bruce did since it's about $2.50 for only 12 small bags. I like the idea of being able to make them larger as well, since I'm thinking about bagging some of my tomato blossoms, especially the cherry varieties which will need larger bags to cover a whole truss.