Did my ghost pepper cross pollenate my cayenne pepper?

[drpotato]

My dad picked a mystery chilli from the garden thinking it was a cayenne pepper, since it branches out the same bush, but the shape was much much shorter and rounder.
I figured maybe he accidentally picked a ghost pepper since he doesnt really know much or remember much between times i show him whats what.

Anyway, he mixed into the mince for stuffed capsicums, and it wound up being very hot, almost unpleasant.
So he showed me and it looked like it could be a malformed ghost pepper (or naga morich, i dont really know since the seed tags dissapeared after planting since the plant temporarily died, lost track).

I just went into the garden and the new branch on the cayenne pepper bush caught my eye, turned out it was actually a whole new chilli plant, but it didnt make sense the leaves were identical but the fruits stubbier.

Further more, the fruits are much hotter than cayenne peppers and they smell of death and doom, they have that pungent melavolent aroma a freshly split ghost pepper has, in the body of a stubby cayenne. the ghost pepper is upwind so im wondering if its possible this is a cross pollenation gone very right, i understand doing it this way can take many generations to get traits to pass on and its often unsuccessful, but ghost peppers are a magnitude stronger and many more magnitudes hotter for their mass, as well so maintaining those attributes with an increase of flesh and fruit size overall, would result in a much hotter chilli technically not that far changed.


Anyway, lining them up, it literally looks like a half way morph, note though the ghost pepper/naga morich in the photo is half as big as usual, i picked small ones to compare the smell and look.

the plant looks exactly like cayenne, but the fruits like half way like a ghost pepper. Cross pollenation was a possibility given the vicinity, though technically so too was with a habanero and fatali im just realizing now.

Anyway, is this a cross breed? or is it a normal cayenne with abnormal first fruits? the plant is very healthy and already quite large. the fruits are already on smaller ones much wider than the widest ones on the mother plant.

its absolute that the plant is an offspring of the cayenne, that i am sure, given the location and all.
Also i dont think at the time i ever had any similar chillis that could have been dormant until now
 

[Geebus]

My moruga scorpions often cross pollinate with my thin Asian varieties. That looks like a crossbreed to me!  Nice work mate!

[Slocombe]

Awesome. I reckon you should give it a name (maybe after your old man? ).

[waterboy 2.0]

Crossbreed is likely, however it wont breed true from the seed.

I'll predict that seed from the hybrid will give a much wider range of phenotypes.

 

Takes a bit of work to make a new true breeding variety.

 

 

[drpotato]

6 minutes ago, waterboy 2.0 said:

 

I'll predict that seed from the hybrid will give a much wider range of phenotypes.

 

 

 

 

What do you mean by that? the seeds will produce random ratios or something between the two crossed plants?

 

In any case i didnt realize until just now but that bush grew super fast, i literally thought it was just a new branch i was thinking of cutting it back until that day i saw it was a new plant.

I might give cloning a try, no particular reason, its a nice chilli, really hot, but also rather big, which is good given all i have are habanero, fatali, ghost which are basically inedible, then there is tabasco (too small), and jalapeno (not hot enough) and the cayenne pepper (sometimes bitter aftertaste), which all have their own specific weaknesses, for general use cooking. But these new ones are pretty fleshy and dont end up bitter where the cayenne peppers are bitter so it looks like a perfect upper range chilli for general use, plus its growing in a bad location

[waterboy 2.0]

Quote

What do you mean by that? the seeds will produce random ratios or something between the two crossed plants?

yes in a nutshell, you will get a broad range of "types".

 

It grew fast due to "hybrid vigour"

Edited May 31, 2016 by waterboy 2.0