This may be borderline off topic, but the pepper plants are being grown with the intention of using in beer so... A friend from our brew club gave me about 15 pepper plants of various types. Three were simply marked "hot," because I think he lost track of those seeds' provenance. All three of those plants are producing a mixture of the fruits in the pic. About 3/4 of the fruits are the longer ones and 1/4 are the rounder ones. Anyone have any idea what could be going on? I don't think it's environmental, because none appear to be particularly non-symmetric or mangled in any way, but I'm not a botanist. Would you use these experimentally in a beer (assuming the taste of the ripe peppers turns out to be interesting), knowing you'd probably never duplicate them?
If the flavor of the peppers seems like they would work in a beer, I'd do it, as I rarely try to duplicate any give recipe. Cheers!
Cross-pollination? (last paragraph) Agree with both utahbeerdude and hopfenunmaltz. I'd sample a couple of each shape to see if there's consistency in taste among the shapes, and let that dictate whether to use one, both or none in beer.
were these plants from saved seeds? when plants are grown within a bees range of flight, cross pollination can occur and mongrel fruits can be had. example when I was in the sweetcorn buiz, I had a late season corn field of a whire corn and a indian corn. they crossed and the white corn was not saleable due to colorful kernals throughout the ear. being interested I saved a few ears , dryed them and saved the seed planted the next year ad got all sorts of weird unsaleable corn. same with saving seeds from squash plants that cross with others. I assume peppers can do the same. taste and see.
Yep, just looking at those I’d guess they’re a hybrid of Jalapeños and some bigger, likely less hot pepper, likely bell. If your buddy was saving seeds and frowning multiple pepper varieties this is very likely. I’d treat them like less hot jalapeños, but obviously just give them a taste. I will say that red peppers tend to be fruitier, so if you’re using new school hops it may pay to let them ripen.
The one on the left looks like an Anaheim. The right, Bell Pepper. Interesting. If I had to guess, it’s probably a Bell Pepper plant. Could be that the peppers are growing that way because they are being effected by their environment. Light, growing zone, soil, etc.
The fruit has the genetics of the parent; it's the parent's ovary, so the flesh of both fruit shapes has the same genotype, assuming they are the same plant (looks like that is the case). Only the seeds would have different genotypes, being the products of meiosis and fertilization. If those saying cross pollination mean they are genetically different, I say no. The flesh of the fruits has the same genetic identity. That said, the two peppers obviously have developed differently. Plant tissue has a high degree of plasticity with regard to environmental conditions and resource availability. Leaves at the top of a tree may differ in size and shape than those at the bottom, for example. In this case, I can see no reason why the two types of fruit are developing differently. Obviously, such a reason exists, but it is not immediately apparent. Flavor differences could also emerge from environmental variability during development. Seems plausible that the factors that have contributed to developmental differences in fruit shape can also impact flavor. Do they taste different?
Ahhhh, well in the case of the corn I mentioned, it eps as anything but sweet corn flavored, try eating a ear of Indian corn, hahahahahahah. Squash was similar but the green and yellow appearance was different. Peppers, unknown to me.
I'd taste when ripe, keep seeds from the pods you like, replant each year if you want to duplicate the beer
Corn is different, because you are eating the seed, not the ovary. Seeds are the genotype resulting from meiosis and subsequent fertilization, i.e., pollination. This is why you can end up with multiple colors and textures on the same ear.
