Topic: Chilli and Sweet Peppers

[Hosta]

I am going to grow both, someone told me that you shouldnt put them in the greenhouse together as they may cross pollinate - is that correct ?

[tim]

No problem here.

[asbean]

I should think it would only be a problem if you were saving the seeds  ??? ??? ???

[tonybloke]

I am going to grow both, someone told me that you shouldnt put them in the greenhouse together as they may cross pollinate - is that correct ?

I think 'someone' got it wrong  ;)

[PurpleHeather]

My friend who is 70 and has gardened all his life has told me that he has, for years grown  pepper plants for himself and  chili for his friend in his greenhouse.

One year the friend told him that the chili had no heat in it. He tasted it (hates hot foods) and said he had to agree that it was heatless.

His conclusion was that it was due to cross pollination.

I grow both and last year I thought that the chili I grew was either milder or it was due to me eating so much of it, my taste buds had grown accustomed to the heat.

Now I am not sure. The fruits look perfectly normal, the only change, it seems is the heat of the chili.

[Hosta]

Hmmmmm ....... think to be on safe side will keep them separate !

[chriscross1966]

Biologically impossible for the pollination to affect the flesh of the pepper (assuming that it is shop-bought seed and not a self-saved one), however it would affect the seed. We don't generally eat the seeds of sweet peppers so what they turn out like is not particularly relevant however the seed is an important part of the chilli pepper for culinary use and if you knocked half the heat out of an already fairly mild one then it wouldn't taste of much at all...... Grow Naga (anything) or (anything) Jolokia, or Habaneros ...even if you lost half the heat from them they'd still be savage, the hottest chillis on th eplanet come from these groups and the Jolokias and Nagas can hit a million Scoville, from memory a Habanero is about 350000 so even if you lost half of the heat they'd still be more than an "average" chilli at about 150000......