The best thing to minimize crossing would be to isolate species as much as possible. In other words, alternate c.chinese, c.annuum, c.baccatum, etc.. So, from that perspective, lumping all the super-hots together would be the most likely to cross.

But, by just having a plant or two between probably isn't going to matter much. Either you really care about pure seeds and isolate, or you take your chances.

Anything I get in gifts / trades I assume is a roll of the dice and I may or may not get what I expected. Also, even though it may look/smell/taste like what I expect, there could be traits from crossing that are buried in there that I haven't picked up on.

So, to make a short story long..... :-) If you don't have the time / resources / ambition to really isolate them, then don't worry about it, just mark them as Open Pollinated.

Since peppers do a lot of self-pollination (don't they know they will go blind doing that?), would bagging an unopened flower in a small cloth bag work? Then you know which pod to save for seed too.

Thanks Tsheets, makes since to me and this is what I will do, Take my chances and when trading seeds just mark as OP.

Sunnibel, Wouldn't the pollin still come through a "screened bag" even the slightest screen I think it would but heck, I am a rookie so have no idea.

Bill

I saw this recommended on the Veggie forum, but it was for a broccoli plant. However, peppers aren't wind pollinated, so no, I don't believe you would have pollen blowing in. It would stop any busy bees from carrying sticky pollen from other plants to the bagged one. I just don't know if anyone here has used the method for peppers and if there is some drawback I'm not aware of.

billmissy: Bagging your peppers will not be 100% but very close. Just open pollination is probably over 90% even with plants close together. By far, they mostly self pollinate. The remainder are mostly pollinated by insects which bagging will prevent and only a very small percentage, probably in the neighborhood of 1% get crossed by wind and the bag will even "help" prevent that.
You only have to bag a branch of the plant you want to isolate. Simply bag a branch down below where it has several buds forming. Then after several pods actually set, you can remove the bag and tie a string around the stem of all the pods that have set inside the bag. When you harvest, you will know the ones with strings are pure.

Just make sure the branch you bag has plenty of room to grow so it doesn't get cramped in the bag.
Bruce

Bill i tend to encourage my cross pollination in my plants to a degree. I too grow the hotter style chiles in my garden so i try to have them pollinate with my mild peppers like banana peppers. i find that the habenaro and banana pepper blend create an incredable sweet pepper to eat whole with a meal with just enough kick to acsent the meal rather than overpower it with spice. Now i only do this to have peppers i can eat whole with a meal usually 2-3 without burning my mouth for the next 45 minutes after. Have had fun bringing the heat up in mild peppers to enjoy flavor over spice compared to the insanely meal stopping big hitting chiles.

The majority of pepper flowers are self-fertilized before they're even fully open. You'll get occasional cross-pollinization, but we're talking maybe 5% of flowers at most.

If you want to bag some flowers, go ahead, it'll assure that you get no cross pollinization. Its not a huge worry either way though.

Bill, i use row cover fabric. Its cheap, and i just made bags out of it where i can just slip them over the whole plant. I tried to make it as easy as possible, cause i grow alot of varietys. I wouldn't worry too much if i was you. Crosses are a low % and can sometimes be a nice suprise like the bhut/ scorpion cross i ended up with last year. The only reason i mess with covering some is cause i'm crazy and tend to over do things. John

Thanks for the advice guys.

I will try to isolate some of the peppers, but not all. I like the idea of getting some "unknowns" put I would like to keep some pure for future use/trade.

John, since I am now hooked I have become crazy as well... :) I got a couple of the Douglah's you sent the second time to germinate THANKS!!

Bill

I'm glad to hear that Bill, i can't understand why your having trouble. I had great results with the same seed. Anyway, glad to hear you got some to come up. John

Am I understanding this correctly....

When you see flower buds start to develope and before they open, use the netting on a stem of peppers you want to isolate and once the pod starts to develop you can take the netting off? Cross polination only occurs in the flower stage but once pods start there is no longer a chance of cross pollination.

Thanks,

Bill

Yes, once the flowers are fertilized, the die is cast. But you might still want to mark the cluster in some way, so you know which ones are which later, it takes a long time to go from flower to ripe pod. Cheers!