ApertureF11Sniper
Cool Member
Posts: 82
Joined: Sun Apr 02, 2023 3:07 pm
Location: Washington State

Cross Pollination Concerns

So, I read that growers of seed purpose will plant one crop and then plant the next crop miles away to keep from cross pollination. And 1 mile was NOT enough distance as per this book I was reading. One of the seed providers I was following on IG was posting about growing various pepper plants and near each other and I messaged him about it and he was just like yeah I put netting around the plants it's fine. If thats fine then why do growers grow crops far apart or maybe the book was referring to a situation that was the exception and not the rule? But cross pollination is a big problem with peppers from what the book said.

This is all new to me, I really don't know much other then what I read. Personally I would like to cross a pepper plant with a Venus Fly trap and have a pepper plant that eats bugs!!!! That would be boss. I bet I cold sell a lot of those lol...

imafan26
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Posts: 14002
Joined: Tue Jan 01, 2013 8:32 am
Location: Hawaii, zone 12a 587 ft elev.

It depends on the crop and how heavy the pollen is. Corn needs to be planted 600 ft away from other varieties, but you can instead isolate the crop by timing the planting so that the different varieties are at least two weeks apart when flowering. The grower usually also bags the tassels and corn silk and hand pollinates just in case. If you are talking beans, you only need 20 ft and if you plant your beans so they do not mature and flower at the same time then it won't be a problem.

Solanaceous crops for the most part are wind and self pollinated. They can also be pollinated by bees and other pollinating insects which is why the netting works to exclude insect pollinators. If you want to cross a pepper or tomato you will have to emascullate the flowers so it cannot self pollinate and hand pollinate the flower with the variety you want to make an intentional cross.

I've grown multiple varieties of peppers side by side for years, and only rarely do they cross. I don't intentionally cross them.

You can dream about the fly eating pepper, but for a hybrid to be successful to breed (non-gmo), they have to be at least related. If you try to cross some hybrids of some types of plants that may not be possible either because they may be mules.



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