I've been playing around with selections of a few mystery (obviously hybrid) hot peppers for quite a few years - for the most part they are smaller fruited, quite beautiful (so very ornamental) - with lots of diversity of leaf color, size, and fruit color and size. Most are very hot!
I've not named any of them....they are all works in progress, but I'd love for interested gardeners to try some of them out and let me know what you get. What is easy about them is that they can be grown out to fruiting in very small containers (I was using half gallon containers and grew out about 50 of them last year).
Below are some pics and identifying numbers for selections you may be interested in trying...I will send one or two types to anyone who would like to grow out a few - all I ask is for a report and some fresh seeds. You can PM me with your mailing address....and report back in this thread.
The pics below show the peppers in mid July, mostly unripe - in just about all cases, the fruit ripen to red. I may add more over the next few days...they are quite a diverse bunch!
This is Hot Pepper 1:
HotPepper1_1July22_08.JPG close up:
HotPepper1_2July22_08small.jpg Ripe:
HotPepper1August25_08small.jpg
Pepper 1 had very dark purple cotyledon leaves as a baby seedling.
Hot Pepper 5:
HotPepper5_1July22_08.JPG close up:
HotPepper5_2July22_08small.jpg Ripe:
HotPepper5August25_08small.jpg
Pepper 5 had greenish purple cotyledon leaves as a baby, not nearly as dark purple as some others I grew -but foliage darkened considerably to purple black as the plant matured.
Hot Pepper 6:
HotPepper6_1July22_08.JPG close up:
HotPepper6_2July22_08small.jpg Ripe:
HotPepper6August25_08small.jpg
Pepper 6 came from the same source seed as that above, but had much less purple/more green in the cot. leaves, and as a mature plant.
Hot Pepper 7:
HotPepper7_1July22_08.JPG close up:
HotPepper7_2July22_08small.jpg Ripe:
HotPepper7August25_08small.jpg
Peppers 7 and 8 came from the same source seed. The young seedlings of each had green cot. leaves. I must have seem some slight variation as they grew, since I planted two plants - and they had very different looking fruit!
Hot Pepper 8:
HotPepper8_1July22_08.JPG close up:
HotPepper8_2July22_08small.jpg Ripe:
HotPepper8August25_08small.jpg
See comments on Pepper 7 above for comments on leaf color of young seedlings.
Hot Pepper 9:
HotPepper9_1July22_08.JPG close up:
HotPepper9_2July22_08small.jpg Ripe:
HotPepper9August25_08small.jpg
Peppers 9, 10 and 11 all came from the same source seed. They looked quite different upon emergence - nearly green, slightly purple and deep purple cot. leaves, which is why I planted out three plants. Pepper 9 had the darkest young leaf color, 10 was greenish purple, and 11 was the greenest.
Hot Pepper 10:
HotPepper10_1July22_08.JPG close up:
HotPepper10_2July22_08small.jpg Ripe:
HotPepper10August25_08small.jpg
See comments for Pepper 9, above.
Hot Pepper 11:
HotPepper11_1July22_08.JPG close up:
HotPepper11_2July22_08small.jpg Ripe:
HotPepper11August25_08small.jpg
See comments for pepper 9, above.
Hot Pepper 13a:
HotPepper13a_1July22_08.JPG close up:
HotPepper13a_2July22_08small.jpg Ripe:
HotPepper13aAugust25_08small.jpg
Peppers 13a and 14 came from the same source seed. The cot. leaves of the young seedlings were either slightly or very purple.
Hot Pepper 14:
HotPepper14_1July22_08.JPG close up:
HotPepper14_2July22_08small.jpg Ripe:
HotPepper14August25_08small.jpg
See comments for pepper 13a above.
Hot Pepper 22:
HotPepper22_1July22_08.JPG close up:
HotPepper22_2July22_08small.jpg Ripe:
HotPepper22August25_08small.jpg
Young seedlings had very green leaves, no purple.
Hot Pepper 29:
HotPepper29_1July22_08.JPG close up:
HotPepper29_2July22_08small.jpg Ripe: turned red, but I don't have a good pic of the ripe fruit
The young seedling that led to pepper 29 had slightly purplish green cot. leaves.
Hot Pepper 37:
HotPepper37_1July22_08.JPG close up:
HotPepper37_2July22_08small.jpg Ripe:
HotPepper37August25_08small.jpg
Both peppers 37 and 38 came from the same source seed. Foliage was either slightly or very purple - I planted out one of each.
Hot Pepper 38:
HotPepper38_1July22_08.JPG close up:
HotPepper38_2July22_08small.jpg Ripe:
HotPepper38August25_08small.jpg
See comments on pepper 37 above.
Hot Pepper 43:
HotPepper43_1July22_08.JPG close up:
HotPepper43_2July22_08small.jpg Ripe:
HotPepper43August25_08small.jpg
Young seedling had green cot. leaves, no purple.
Hot Pepper 47:
HotPepper47_1July22_08.JPG close up:
HotPepper47_12uly22_08small.jpg Ripe:
HotPepper47August25_08small.jpg
Young seedling had very purple cot. leaves.
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Posting my germination results here. Eventually it will have germination percent and breakdown of leaf colors. Germination and Cotyledon colors (very premature) below is at 9 day mark - just took the Saran Wrap off the tray, let's see how the colors evolve in a week or so. Using just three categories - P is mostly purple, G is mostly green, mix is about equal
Pepper 1 germinated in 7 days 100% germ; 4 green, 4 purplish, 1 purple, one ? cot colors
Pepper 5 germinated in 5 days 100%; 4 purplish, 5 green, 2 ? cots
Pepper 6 germinated in 6 days 90%; 7 green, 2 ? cots
Pepper 7 germinated in 5 days 100%; 1 purplish, 9 green cots
Pepper 8 germinated in 6 days 100%; 1 purplish, 9 green cots
Pepper 9 germinated in 7 days 100%; 5 purple, 6 green, 1 ? cot
Pepper 10 germinated in 5 days 90%; 9 green cot
Pepper 11 germinated in 5 days 100%; 1 purplish, 9 green cots
Pepper 13a germinated in 6 days 100%; 2 greenish, 11 purple cots
Pepper 14 germinated in 6 days 100%; 1 green, 1 purple, 8 purplish cots
Pepper 22 germinated in 6 days 100%; 15 green cots
Pepper 29 germinated in 6 days 100%; 11 green cots
Pepper 37 germinated in 7 days 90%; 3 purplish, 4 green, 2 ? cots
Pepper 38 germinated in 6 days 100%; 3 purplish, 6 purple, 1 ? cots
Pepper 43 germinated in 7 days 90%; 1 purplish, 6 green cots
Pepper 47 germinated in 7 days 100%; 11 purple cots
Germination on all is excellent - if anyone is having issues, it is your conditions, or damage in the mail.
For those varieties that come out as a mix, if you can fit it, grow a few of each type of leaf color you get.
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March 5 update: I got my hot peps into the sun today - they've also spent some time under light, and the cots are coloring. Below are three pictures that are labeled with the pepper number I distributed. They are not in order, and there are other peppers that I didn't share (had too many, and I wanted to share only the most interesting). I also tabulated the cot color ratios above, or at least what they looked like today, on March 5.