here is the cross section

another view

wet prep....image of whole plant to follow

Thanks for any help on IDing these little brown boogers on the placenta....they don't seem to affect the taste / seed development, pod color, the leaves are 95% normal...(very few have spotting see pic)

I saw dark specks on the placenta of one of my peppers once. I thjnknit was in a Hot; Pequin.... aka super chili>. I blew it of, seeing that everything else looked perfect. It may have been a little immature when I picked it... My guess is those dark spots are the next row of seeds that are still developing.

Do you have a pic of how they look, close up with the naked eye?... for those of us that haven't got tht up close and personal... lol. ;-)

I'm no pro.. just a guess

dj

This post was edited by djoy on Mon, Aug 18, 14 at 20:16

Forgot to say, Super cool pictures!!! Thanks for sharing. i would love to see a cross section of a mature seed....

Another thing I have seen often in store bought peppers are what I would describe as a pepper growing inside a pepper.... still sticking with my first guess.

dj

This post was edited by djoy on Mon, Aug 18, 14 at 20:36

I agree with DR
Randal

I notice some orange habs at the store look perfectly fine, but when cut open the seeds are brown / black and placenta a little too. Maybe this is the start of that, rotting from the inside out or fungal growth.

> " My guess is those dark spots are the next row of seeds that are still developing."

Based on the last two pics that is my guess too.

Sometimes you will see a little (or a lot of) rot setting in at the placenta. Meanwhile the seeds are fine. I've even harvested perfectly good seeds from a fuzzy placentas. Apparently the placental tissue is susceptible while the seed are tiny fortresses against the depredations of the world.

Dennis

Thanks for all your responses...I have harvested and cut a couple more open (now more mature) with the same "specks". Today, I noticed some of the specks looking larger and, surprise, were rather seed shaped :). Most seeds (90%+) I am pulling from these pods are without darkness / rot...I wonder if the dampness here in the NW is risky for the rot....will post some more pics when I harvest the mature ones....thanks again!

as promised, this is a pic of the habs (pumpkin orange / yellowish) from above mixed in with my trinidad scorpions (red) a possible cross between my orange hab and a c. reaper (light red / dark orange), and a strange variant from my hab seeds which produced a white/ peach colored hab. the dark seed structures were probably developing seeds as when the peppers were ripe there was very little remaining dark structures to the seeds....the seeds isolated from the peppers above are now growing plants in my aerogarden for this seasons crop. I will be sure to keep my c. reaper plant as far away as possible from the other plants as I accidently cross pollinated it with hab spores and made its scoville score too weak :)

"wet prep."! LOL. Look like seeds to me! What kind of microscope are you using to take pictures?

My Orange habs (and those from store) were thin skinned, soft, juicy, with small placenta , very few seeds. They are good saucers.