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r/pepperbreeding

Image 1 — C.chinense x C.annumm & C.annumm x C.bacatum.
Image 2 — C.chinense x C.annumm & C.annumm x C.bacatum.
Image 3 — C.chinense x C.annumm & C.annumm x C.bacatum.
Image 4 — C.chinense x C.annumm & C.annumm x C.bacatum.
Image 5 — C.chinense x C.annumm & C.annumm x C.bacatum.
Image 6 — C.chinense x C.annumm & C.annumm x C.bacatum.
Image 7 — C.chinense x C.annumm & C.annumm x C.bacatum.
Image 8 — C.chinense x C.annumm & C.annumm x C.bacatum.
Image 9 — C.chinense x C.annumm & C.annumm x C.bacatum.
▲ 17 r/pepperbreeding

C.chinense x C.annumm & C.annumm x C.bacatum.

Hi, I’m just starting my journey with pepper hybridization. A year ago, I began by crossing an orange habanero with a sweet red-horn pepper. I got one fruit, and upon opening it, found only a single viable seed. Thanks to some beginner's luck, I managed to grow a plant I named "Redbach." The Redbach F1 produced plenty of fruit; the flavor was more like the red-horn—sweet and without heat. See the first two photos. From the F1, I got six F2 plants, three of which are currently in the pre-flowering stage (see photo #3-4). I’d like to strike a balance between hot and sweet peppers, aiming for thicker walls and a crunchier texture. I know there have been many projects like this. I hope the F3 generation starts moving in that direction. If I get stuck, I plan to introduce a cross with "Madam Janet." This year, I also secured a cross between Scarlett and Peppapeach Stripey; I harvested two seed-filled fruits—which I’ve already sown, and I even have the first two seedlings sprouting :) That’s a bigger success, and there’s a chance more will appear... I also pollinated a Scarlett with a Tepin x Lemon Drop cross (shown in the photos). There wasn't a specific goal for that one—just experimenting, as I did with various other peppers. Now, it's time to wait for the results ^^. How do you handle the waiting? Where do I start? I have a window and a balcony (though it's a bit narrow) at my disposal, plus a box with grow lights for smaller plants and seedlings during the winter. I have other peppers too, but I don't want to overwhelm you with a wall of text right away. I wanted to use these first ten posts to say hello to everyone ;) Where are you all based? Are you from the Netherlands? I don't know when you're reading this, but I wish you a tasty coffee ^^

u/Several_Scarcity535 — 12 hours ago
▲ 4 r/pepperbreeding

Piri-piri x KS Lemon Starrburst F1

As my flair states, I'm mainly focusing on interspecific hybrids, especially C. frutescens with other species. I treat my Piri-piri as `functionally frutescens`, even when it's not 100% pure species (as you probably know, Piri-piri is a name used for a group of peppers cultivated in Africa that came from Malagueta brought there by Portuguese), since it looks pretty similar to Malagueta, thus fitting most of frutescens traits.

So, I've decided to show this hybrid here as well; people in Pepper Lovers discord probably have seen it already. So, what we have here, is C. frutescens x chinense that uses two of cultivars I like quite a lot. Main goal is to create pepper that would be a good sauce material (from experience, sauce made from fermented mash made from mix of Piri-piri and KSLSB was already pretty good), so taste and productivity would be a priority (which I thing wouldn't be a problem, both parents are pretty productive), anything else like nice shape and yellow fruit would be just a bonus.

I keep one plant isolated on windowsill inside to produce F2 seeds, while other three grow outside, either in pots or in vegetable patch. As it's a tradition in many interspecific hybrids, fertility is pretty bad, in first batch there was between 50 and 60 flowers, out of which only 6 of them became fruits. Still one of the best frutescens x chinense I have grown so far, up until this one the best result was 4 fruits with 7 seeds total. From those 6 fruits I've got 20 seeds which means F2 is already shaping up better than other fxc crosses. And, second batch of flowers already turned out better, I am currently looking at 9-10 fruits from selfing, possibly more. Open pollination outside fares much better, I'd say 78-80% of flowers turned into fruits, but most of them are probably from pollinations with foreign pollen - fruits are bigger (up to even 2 times longer) and contain way more seeds.

Isolated plant, as you can see on photo and description, started with quadruple cotyledons, something I've seen for the first time - granted, I didn't grow hundreds of thousands of pepper plants yet, but I've seen a fair share of tricots from various chinense plants. I'd say it's pretty unique - and while nothing is yet determined, since I'm not growing F2 yet, the way that plant grows may actually suggest presence of polycotyledons gene (either pc-1, pc-2 or pc-3, link), but that's to be determined next year.

u/Aleist3rTheRaven — 15 hours ago
▲ 1 r/pepperbreeding

Dragosn breath Australia

Yeah hi I'm trying to track down dragons breath seedlings in Australia nsw and if possible c.fluxosum also death spiral and moa scotch bonnets and also red and brown morugas and the big brown Kathumby sorry of its to much to ask for

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u/faterrorsans — 23 hours ago
▲ 15 r/pepperbreeding

Chinense × Baccatum seeds finally harvested!

Finally harvested the seeds from my habanero pollinated with baccatum pollen! The seeds are all pale and healthy looking, and nicely plump but they're so much more wavy than I expected and the size variation surprised me. Some are so small and some are actually quite large, and they're so twisted on themselves in real life. I included a picture at the end of the uncrossed habanero seeds I harvested a few weeks ago for comparison. The weird thing though is that there's so many of them! Over 20 from my crossed pod when my uncrossed pods have under 15 each, I absolutely didn't expect that

(Re uploaded because the text didn't upload with everything else)

u/DTH05 — 1 day ago
▲ 9 r/pepperbreeding

👋Welcome to r/pepperbreeding - Introduce Yourself and Read First!

Hey everyone! I’m u/RespectTheTree, a founding moderator of r/pepperbreeding.

This is our new home for pepper breeding, genetics, selection, and curiosity-driven experimentation, from backyard crosses to long-arc pre-breeding projects. Whether you’re here to make hotter peppers, better peppers, weirder peppers, or just understand why peppers do what they do, you’re in the right place.

This community exists to talk openly about the process: what works, what fails, what surprises you, and what you learn along the way.

What to Post Post anything you think the community would find interesting, helpful, or inspiring, including:

  • breeding projects (successful or not)
  • crosses you’re working on or thinking about
  • phenotype photos, weird segregants, or stability questions
  • genetics, inheritance, or trait discussions
  • seed saving, selection methods, or grow-out notes
  • questions from beginners and deep dives from veterans alike

If it’s about peppers and you’re thinking critically about them, it belongs here.

Community Vibe We’re aiming for curious, constructive, and generous. This is not a hype subreddit and not a marketplace first. It’s a place to learn in public, share knowledge, and respect that everyone is somewhere different on the path.

Ask good questions. Answer thoughtfully. Be kind. Don’t hoard insight.

How to Get Started

  1. Introduce yourself in the comments below. Tell us what you grow or what you want to learn.
  2. Post something today. A simple question can spark a great discussion.
  3. If you know someone who would love this kind of community, invite them.
  4. Interested in helping out? We’ll be looking for additional moderators as things grow, feel free to reach out.

Thanks for being part of the very first wave. Together, let’s make r/pepperbreeding a place where good questions get better answers, and peppers get weirder in the best possible way.

🌶️

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u/RespectTheTree — 1 day ago
▲ 12 r/pepperbreeding

Ripe habanero! She holds the seeds of a very special project ft. her sister flowers

I've posted about this before but my habanero is finally ripe! I'm gonna leave it for another week to let the Baccatum mixed seeds fully mature, and hopefully give me 1 or 2 viable f1 babies for next spring. I also made 3 more crosses with the same genes, and plan to do a few more as more flowers come up so these plants will likely come inside this winter if any of them take, wish me luck! I'll update when I harvest the seeds with my results

u/DTH05 — 3 days ago
▲ 28 r/pepperbreeding

Sole successful C. Chinense × C. Baccatum pod almost fully ripe

Pictures from the past few days, Baccatum parent plant included (only three fruits on the first one because the other flowers were used for breeding) These plants just put out a wave of new flowers, so I made 4 new crosses with the habanero flowers that were ready, and will do them the other way once more baccatum flowers mature

u/DTH05 — 6 days ago
▲ 7 r/pepperbreeding

I made a small web app to keep track of my plant breeding and crosses

Hi all,

I'm a hobbyist plant breeder and software developer and I've built a web app to manage my plant breeding projects.

I created it earlier this year after getting tired of keeping track of everything through phone notes and spreadsheets and after having polished it up a bit, I've release it for free (it's a cloud-based app managed by me).

I mainly breed flowers like Hemerocallis, Dahlia, Tulipa, and Lilium, so I'm not sure how well it fits for breeding peppers. The software is tailored to the specific breeding workflow I've developed over the last couple of years, and it comes with a pre-populated list of cultivars for those species.

The software isn't meant to be a full professional breeding or genetics suite, but rather a practical tool to keep track of the process. It doesn't manage large fields, crops or land sites, as it's built specifically for small-scale gardeners like me.

Here is how it works:

  1. You create a plant and associate it with a species and cultivar. The system automatically assigns a tracking number to that plant. You can choose from built-in species and cultivars or add your own.
  2. Each plant can have photos, metadata, and growth notes.
  3. You can record a cross between two plants and the system generates a tracking code for that cross. You can then write this code on physical plant tags or whatever tracking system you use.
  4. You can search for a cross using its code and record how many seeds you harvested and how many you planted. For each planted seed, the system creates a new plant in "seed" status, which can then progress to "seedling" and "adult" (or be marked as dead/retired).
  5. Once a seedling grows, you can tag it with its new number just like any other plant.

It's mostly mobile-friendly, so you can easily tag crosses right from your phone while working in the garden.

The software also features a pedigree section with a broad visual chart showing all generations of plants and cultivars.

Additionally, you can attach custom properties to your own cultivars and use them for filtering or viewing in the pedigree section.

Right now, there isn't a pre-populated list of pepper cultivars or named varieties. However, you can easily create your own species (which acts as a container for cultivars and plants) and cultivars.

EDIT: I've added Capsicum to the system, split into three species groups: one combining Annuum / Chinense / Frutescens, one for Baccatum / Ají, and one for Pubescens / Rocoto. I also loaded a small list of popular cultivars. A lot of metadata is still missing, but at least the names and species are there to give us a good starting point for the future.

If you'd like to test it out with your recent or upcoming crosses, here is how you can get started:

  1. Add your plants: Go to Plants -> New Plant.
    1. Add the species: When selecting the species in the Plant Form, click "+ New Species". You can create a single umbrella species like "Hot Peppers", or specific categories like "Capsicum annuum". (I usually split mine into groups that can actually be bred together).
    2. Add the cultivar: Under cultivar, if the plant belongs to a named variety, click "+ New Cultivar" and add it (e.g., Carolina Reaper).
    3. You can ignore the other fields in the New Plant form for now.
  2. Custom properties: You can skip these for now while testing.
  3. Repeat steps 1-2 for all the plants you want to track.
  4. Create a cross: Go to "Crosses" and create a cross by selecting two of your plants. Once created, you can edit any previously created plant/seedling and associate that specimen with the cross.

The system will then automatically generate all the lineage and pedigree charts for you!

I grow peppers in my garden from time to time, so who knows, maybe I'll start breeding them too!

Here the link (requires a quick, free sign-up):

https://www.semid.app

(the mod allowed this post)

reddit.com
u/tipodue — 7 days ago
▲ 3 r/pepperbreeding

How much does the singular pod seeds are taken from influence the new plant?

As opposed to any from the whole plant? Haven't found much looking into this (AI doesn't count). May save pod specific seeds in hopes of better preservation of the desires traits. Wondering if anyone has experience with this. I have just been putting all cultivar seeds together.

reddit.com
u/odd-wad — 10 days ago
▲ 23 r/pepperbreeding

Successful swelling cross between C. Chinense and C. Baccatum now ripening!

I posted about this cross when it first started swelling a little while ago, now it's starting to ripen! Red habanero mother, and a mad hatter father. Fingers crossed I get a viable seed or two!

u/DTH05 — 10 days ago