Wild Peppers (Very Cold Tolerant And Hardy)

[WildTomatoGuy]

Think I Might Start Selling These To Breeders,HeHe

 

[Chuck]

Those peppers are very common. They are known by numerous names, Chili Pequin, Chili Petin, Turkey Pepper, Bird Pepper, Birds Eye Pepper and many other names. Growers have grown them for decades. Some are slightly oval, some are perfectly round and some are football shaped. They grow wild all over Texas, spread mostly by Mocking Birds.

 

[Marck]

Small chilé peppers or bird peppers are often the wild form of chilé peppers found growing in waste areas. Originally from Mexico and Guatemala, these now occur much more widely due to cultivation.
They are often called Capsicum annuum var. glabriusculum, though they are not so much a separate variety as simply the ancestral form from which domesticated chilé peppers have been bred from and recrossed back to numerous times. Indeed, some forms of bird pepper are cultivated varieties.

 

[WildTomatoGuy]

This is a different strain from brazil....

Capsicum flexuosum​

 

[Marck]

Interesting. I read about Capsicum flexuosum. It is used as a spice to some extent in southern Brazil and northern Argentina where it is native. If it truly does possess heritable genetics for increased cold hardiness, that might make it valuable for crop breeding.
Do you think the species could be directly marketed as a specialty crop? There are already so many varieties of chilé, but those who are obsessed with capsaicin consumption do seem to have a steady appetite for trying new and ever-hotter peppers.

 

[WildTomatoGuy]

Interesting. I read about Capsicum flexuosum. It is used as a spice to some extent in southern Brazil and northern Argentina where it is native. If it truly does possess heritable genetics for increased cold hardiness, that might make it valuable for crop breeding.
Do you think the species could be directly marketed as a specialty crop? There are already so many varieties of chilé, but those who are obsessed with capsaicin consumption do seem to have a steady appetite for trying new and ever-hotter peppers.

It has very valuable “frost resistance” genes. The number of chromosomes of C. flexuosum it is the same as cultivated chili species (2n = 24).I made crosses this year.Will be growing them next year.Just think it would be a good thing to start the pepper growing year alittle earlier,And also extend a pepper plants growing season.My plants are still growing out there,When everything else has been killed by the first frost.Interesting,,,,,To me anyway.Of course theres always going to be people that dont believe what you say and will cut you down for what you are doing in the garden.

 

[Ruderunner]

So how cold can these tolerate?

 

[WildTomatoGuy]

So how cold can these tolerate?

The paperwork says 5-14 degrees.I`ll go look at them tomorrow.Coldest so far here has been 28....

 

[WildTomatoGuy]

Still Alive !!!!I Think I`m On To Something Really Really Big Here...Can You Imagine Picking Peppers Out In Your Garden In The Middle Of November? ????

 

[Marck]

There do seem to be a number of people exploring pepper breeding with Capsicum flexuosum. Perhaps it shall lead to commercial cultivars with an extended growing season for colder climates.