This year's fruit will not be changed by planting hot / sweet next to each other. If you saved seeds and planted them next year, anything is possible.

So, unless you are saving seeds, you have nothing to worry about. If so, then you can take measures to prevent cross pollination (which you would likely want to do even if you separated hot / sweet).

tsheets, I'd like to save seeds from the peppers I grow this year. What measures do you take?

I read that if you save seeds from a cross-pollinated pepper, the hotness is dominant. I think that means you could get a hot bell pepper, but not a sweet cayenne.

I haven't saved seeds yet, so, don't really have a plan yet. But, I've seen posts about saving seeds, so, I would do a search and see what turns up. I've heard of bagging the blooms before they open and I think even gluing them before they open. Not 100% certain, though. I'll probably be researching this in a few months when the time comes. :-)

They will make the sweet peppers hot but shouldn't affect the hot peppers. Why would you not want that? My uncle has sweet peppers that were contaminated, they are so good. The rest of my family doesn't agree since they don't like the "surprise" of getting a hot sweet pepper.

Good info to know, as i'm plating a few hots & a few sweets this year.

Both male and female parts of peppers are in every single flowers and do not need polinators. So if you throw a piece of very fine French tulle on the one you want to save seeds from, it will not be cross pollinated. Better yet, just cover a few flowers for a wihile then tag them and remove the cover once they have fruit. I would think than one or two peppers will produce more than enough seeds so you don't have to continue this process all season. BUT you have to tag those protected peppers.

Hey tn veggie gardner, ever thought about the inside trick for growing them all year? You gotta have more room in that big house you got. 3-5 gallon per plant and you get fresh ones all year.... I'm trying hydroponic this year too.

Bruce

beast: Yea, much more easily said than done with a 2 year old and a 4 year old running about the house all day. I have to lock the room I keep my seedlings in for about 2 months so they don't get destroyed! =)

Well having said that. There are techniques I retired out of the military 2 years ago so I could stay @ home and take care of my 3 and 4 year old boys. The wife said a long time ago she would work once I decided to stop - she kept her word.... Now all I do is wait for the day that the boys start school - I can guarentee the boat will be hooked up when the bus arrives.... :)

It is possible to cross pollinate in the same year. I had new packaged seeds of Red Italian Sweet Peppers and Poblano Pepper. I planted two rows of each next to eachother (about 2 ft spacing) and around ten plants of the Red sweets turned Poblano green and were hot as a Poblano would be. It was very strange. I didn't think it could happen but it did. I know the seeds were new from Rupp Seed Company and only a few changed from the whole lot.

I don't think you have to spread them out, just be aware that it's possible the first year.

In my home garden I put them right next to each other and have good luck and it's cool when things change on their own.

Here is a link that might be useful: Home Gardening

chris082004, It's highly unlikely that your Red Italian and Poblano Peppers crossed the first season. Crossed peppers only contain crossed genes in the seed (ie. you need to grow out crossed seeds to get crossed genes to come through).

For further reading on cross pollination see the link below (search results on "cross pollination").

Also, click this link to a site that details how crossing works for tomato plants (same for all plants).

Here is a link that might be useful: GW Hot Pepper Cross Pollination search

Beast: Enligten me as to these "techniques" you speak of. Mine must pass inspection of the Mrs., as she likes to use all rooms of the house for things like toy rooms, bedrooms & other nonsense. ;-) I had to buy her a new camera just to use the 2 sunny windowsils in the house...Nuts, huh!? Anyways, one of these years when I stop renting, buy my own place & get these bad hips of mine replaced, i'm sure I will get some type of hydroponic year-round setup going, but for now I must grow within the seasons somewhat. Let me know when that bus arrives & i'll hop on the boat with ya! =) I love my kids to death, but do also look forward to them both going to school so the wife and I can have a bit of peace at home again.

- Steve

I've read it's not possible to get hot sweet peppers from growing them close together. But I have heard several stories of getting that result. Although it might not be in the genetics of the pepper. I've heard lots of local farmers claim it does affect the heat. Have there been any tests on the heat level of those peppers in question?

notrod, yes you can get hot and sweet crosses BUT NOT in the same season... by planting a hot beside a sweet. Seed collected from hot and sweet peppers grown beside each other may result in a cross pollinated pepper that has sweet characteristics but is hot and vis versa (a hot bell or sweet habanero).

Yea, it can not happen in the same season. Though, the results of a cross-pollination of hot & sweet peppers can end up in a nice new variety of pepper about .05% of the time...lol. Tis how my family created their Hot Banana pepper they've been growing for 6-7 years now. =) One note about this, it was really just luck, as normally seeds saved from a "hybrid" like this would only produce for one year, if even that. Depends on the parents a bit also.

I am positive this happened in the same season. I myself didn't think it was possible but I saw it first hand. I'm not sure if the plants cross pollinated or what but the peppers had a little of both in them. it was the shape and color of the Red Sweet with the tast of a Poblano.

Here is a link that might be useful: Home Gardening

Well, i'm sure it's something possible...something weird happens where the plants grow roots together or whatever...lol.

It is a FACT that cross pollination can/may/will affect ONLY the seeds not the fruit developed from that flower(period).

Lets have some sex education. Flowers are sex organs of plants.The female is a female(of course) that gets pregnant and the seeds are its babies. The flesh/shell of the fruit is just like a womb, that provide nutrients to the seeds and protects them. Now those seeds are entities that can grow into another plant. Thus they carry the genetic codes of their parents, and grand parents....

I have had hot bell peppers on and sweet on the same plant grown from comercial seeds I don't know if it was a cross or just a screwed up seed from previous years it would be impossible to know

I can propose a possible explanation and cyrus gardener is on the right track. When plants cross pollinate the only part of the plant where the male pollinators genes are expressed is in the seed, However culinary sources constantly claim that the hot capsaicinoids are concentrated in the pith and especially seeds. It's possible that all the 'heat' migrates to the flesh from the forming seeds.

So it seems likely that the cross-pollinated sweet peppers get 'heat' from the male pollinator by transmission from the newly formed seeds.

In any case it does happen.

OK> We know for sure that cross pollination will affect the seeds in the crossed pod. Now if you save seeds from that pod and plant them you will end up having a crossed pepper.

I think the theory that the heat from seeds (assuming sweet pepper is crossed with a hot pepper) will penetrate to the flesh, making it taste hot or spicy, is INACCURATE. Because, the seed itself is not hot. It gets its heat from the membrane that is in it. If you take a super hot pepper seed and peel of that layer off of it(wash it) and taste it you will see that it is not hot. For the same reason crushed pepper, sprinkled on pizza, is relatively mild.

I actually had to sign up just to comment because the ignorance pissed me off so much. A few arrogant people on Herr continue to state how impossible it i for hot peppers to make sweet peppers hot. Can't happen. I'm possible in the same season they say. They continue to spit into the wind with their tired nonsense when person after person with first hand experience says it happened to them. I too had it happen when my sweets became hot. So it may be improbable. It might not supposed to be able to happen, but guess what...it DOES happen so stop being such obtuse arrogant...and now clearly ignorant people. By the way the world is not flat and it is possible to fly to the moon if you haven't heard the latest