Kitchen Garden Forum

My chillies (various varieties) & long Italian pointed peppers are being grown outside in pots close to one another. I've noticed that a couple of the Italian peppers have actually tasted quite fiery and wonder whether it's possible that they could have been cross pollinated by insects with some of the chillies.

Can this happen? We've both tasted some of the peppers and find that they are definitely "hotter", tasting more like chillies than peppers. If this has actually been happening, is there any way of avoiding it in future as it's quite disconcerting to get the wrong heat level in certain recipes, especially if you're eating peppers chopped up raw in salads !

Hi Primrose

I would have thought that the effects of any cross-pollination would only become evident in the plants grown from this year's crossed seed and not this year's fruit. But I may be corrected by someone more experienced and knowledgeable.

Out of interest, what variety are the peppers and are they new seed or seed you have saved yourself?

The peppers are the long Italian pointy ones grown from a commercial seed packet - Franchi Seeds I think. Most of the chilli plants are Hungarian Wax grown from last year's saved seeds, although I do have one or two other hotter varieties given to me.
The only other alternative I can think of is that my husband picked some ripe Hungarian Wax chillies and told me they were ripe peppers. (He's not too expert on the gardening front !!)

Hi Alan,
You are perfectly correct in what you say. The only thing affected this year from a cross pollination this year would be the progeny grown from the resultant seed next year it would have no effect on the taste of the fruit this year.
I suspect that Primrose's chillis and peppers were having a whale of a time unbeknown to her last year.
JB.