Pepper project 2007 - #1
 

Two years ago I was in the general location of a plant of Black Pearl hybrid. Well, somehow, a ripe fruit found its way into my pocket. Last year I grew some of the saved seed, and saw two general types at the young seedling stage - purple leaf, and greenish purple leaf. Here are pictures of the purple leaf seedling full grown, and of the greenish leaf seeling. I am growing out seed saved from each, to see if I can stable forms of each - and take a look at anything else of interest that emerges.

Both look very nice, Craig.. I'm curious to see what happens in the next generation.

I have an actual Black Pearl plant growing in my garden, and it's a fighter! Was doing quite well this past year, and then the freeze hit and it pretty much looked dead, so the wife pulled it from the raised bed and tossed it into the 'dead plant' heap for later composting. I was upset about losing it, but didn't think a whole lot of it until about a week later when I was walking past the pile and saw some green on it.

I quickly made a spot for it in the ground and watered it in. It's now covered with new growth :o

With luck, I'll have a Black Pearl tree in a few years :D

I too have saved seed from this variety, as I really find it to be an awesome addition to the garden - both looking beautiful and lending plenty of heat to my cooking :)

Please keep us up to date on your growout - I'm curious to see if the taste changes in further generations.

[quote=nctomatoman;47605]Two years ago I was in the general location of a plant of Black Pearl hybrid. Well, somehow, a ripe fruit found its way into my pocket. Last year I grew some of the saved seed, and saw two general types at the young seedling stage - purple leaf, and greenish purple leaf. Here are pictures of the purple leaf seedling full grown, and of the greenish leaf seeling. I am growing out seed saved from each, to see if I can stable forms of each - and take a look at anything else of interest that emerges.[/quote]

Craig, I picked up a Black Pearl pepper from the clearance table and saved seeds from it. Planted seeds Feb. 6(not realizing that it was an hybrid) . I have about a dozen seedling 2-3 inches tall. All are green, if they will have the dark foliage, at what age do they turn?? Patty
ps.......planted 2 more cells today just for better odds!!

The leaf color shows up very early - even the cotyledon leaves are quite dark purple, esp. when exposed to sun. I will take some pics of my hot pepper seed trays later and post them - some good distinctions between green leaf hots and purple leaf hots.

Here you go - peppers with purple or purplish green foliage show up with very dark cotyledon leaves - the contrast is evident in my hot pepper flat...

I've noticed with my plants, they do suffer somewhat from transplant shock, resulting in green leaves for a while.. but they eventually go back to purple.

All my BLack Pearl seedlings have green leaves, so can I assume that they will produce the red pearl peppers? Did any of the purple foliage seedlings come from the green leaf/red pearl pepper plants(F2's or F3's?)?

Here is an example of one of my bee produced hybrids that I am working to stabilize - it is still segretating this season, as the colors of these young seedlings show.

I can now provide an update on this project.

The first pic is plant 06-34, from last year, that I am trying to stabilize (it is one of the two Black Pearl F2s I grew out last year, and is a really lovely plant).



I planted quite a few of the 06-34 seeds and got the expected mix of leaf colors, showing some good variation. The next 5 pics are the 5 seedlings I am growing out. I am hoping to see fruit on them soon, but it looks like I should get what I saw last year with at least one of these.

And here is what is shaping up from the one that is purple leaf and black fruited. Again, a picture from last season, saved as 06-35, and the plants I am growing out from those seeds this year. I think that I will get what I want with one of this year's grow outs.

You just never know what you are going to get when these hot peppers are selecting for different traits.

Here are pictures from the really dark leaf one with the black to red, round fruit (which I saved as 06-35). One of the three has the right foliage, but the pepper shape doesn't seem quite right. One of the three has quite large, cone shaped green fruit.

And here is what I am getting from the green foliaged, upright green to purple to red cone shaped pepper, saved as 06-34. Still lots of variability. Plants 2, 3, and 5 are very close, with 2 possibly what I am after. Plant 4 looks like it may be a purple leaf version. More work ahead!

OK - things are getting clearer. Starting with the black foliaged, round fruited beauty, which I saved as 06-35. I think I found what I was looking for, and then some!

The first pic is from last year - the goal. The next set of pics are two each (plant and fruit) from my 3 selections this year, all of which had slightly different colored foliage in the young seedling stage.

The first plant looks very close to what I had last year (a stable, OP version of Black Pearl). The other two are very, very different - one is producing medium sized light green cones with a purple blush - the other is a slender lavendar pepper. Awaiting ripe colors and heat tests on all.

Now for the results on my goal to find 06-34 (and again, it looks good). Pics below - first is from the target plant from last year - next are pairs of the five selections I grew out (plant and fruit pics). I am really close or spot on with a few, and found a really attractive dark leaf variation that will likely lead to further work.