Saturday, April 19, 2008

Chilli Angel And Wizards

A Chilli Flower looking angelic, I can see the wings, legs, and head.

The second Flower on a seperate plant has just begun to open. I have grown two Chilli plants from Tatton Park bought seeds from last year.I acquired two more plants from work, and started a fifth plant from some store bought chilli's. I removed the seeds, dried them, then planted them.One plant survived from the eight seedlings.
I have a Blogosphere Chilli question...

Do you need to pollinate Chillis to make them set the fruits?

I read conflicting advice on the internet, so im putting out the question on the blog.
I have five plants growing, three definite varietys of chillis, and two mystery ones. I asked the lady who grew the seeds what she sowed in pots before bringing them into work. I have growing on the kitchen windowsill:
Chilli Jalapeno x1, Chilli Friars Hat x1, Chilli Serenade x1, and two plants from( Pepper World Beater, Corno Di Torro, and Chilli De Cayenne.)
Two of those are sweet Peppers but untill the plants produce recognisable fruit I will not know what I am growing.
I read Sweet Peppers are self pollinating.
So over the past few days I have been hand pollinating the flowers with a cotton bud, moving between flowers in a Bee like fashion. As i was doing it the question appeared in my head.
Does anyone know can you pollinate a Chilli plant flower, from another flower on the same plant? Or do you need two seperate plants of the Same Variety to exchange pollen to make fruit/Chillis?
The google research confused me, with talk about cross pollination making hybrid Chillis and losing the specific variety you grew to start with. Some Chilli species can cross pollinate, others do not cross.
Some websites talked about wind being enough to blow pollen from flower to flower.
The internet is good for somethings, but in this case has muddied the water even more..Does the blogosphere have some Chilli Wizards to help answer my question :)

2 comments:

Zoƫ said...

Hi,

Yes - I shall probably go to Hampton Court, I usually get free tickets for that one. I am going to Chelsea too on the first members day. Its a bit like a rugby scrum by 2pm, so I tend to get there for 8am and leave early too. Yep, Garden History is something I enjoy, especially medieval as there was so much symbolism attached to everything.

Glad you had a good time at Harlow Carr, the photos look good!

David (Snappy) said...

I have only watched Chelsea on the TV.I do go through the web page though and look at every design.I did that last year for Tatton Park.Hil's went on the first day and brought me back a show guide.I new which show gardens I wanted to see.I saw 79 out of eighty!I left the others to wander and photograph.
I like the history of gardens and plants.Stories bring the flowers to life more, and make them connected to the past.
I loved Harlow Carr, five times I have been in nine months.If I could I would go once a month or more.
I know the layout of HC as well as my own garden and allotment.
At Tatton I tried hard to photograph just the gardens and not people.I wander what its like when the judges go around.I spoke to an exhibitor who said they had to vacate their show gardens and leave the judges alone.It must be lovely to wander freely without the rugby scrum of members opening day!