Canoncito - earliest ripe pepper

[walt]

I have to get this one.  I need peppers and I need them quick!

[imgrimmer]

[farmher]

I am the steward and plant breeder of the Canoncito pepper in NM (before Wild Garden had it) and was doing a web search for a grant and found this forum. Felt I should answer your question about agronomy. The reason we direct seed the pepper is to keep the taproot integrity in the genetics. When i was doing earlier trials back in 2007 the plants that were direct seeded were stronger, more upright and performed better as far as yield and even resistance to disease in the field. The transplant sets were floppy plants and had less vigor. Not to mention that is the way they had always been grown for over 150 years in this field. Glad Frank is releasing some new work with this pepper, that was the entire purpose for gifting them the seed, so other plant breeders could have access to this pepper to create new varieties from the complex genetics.

[philagardener]

Welcome, farmher ! Glad to have you join us! This pepper has a wonderful background and thank you for your efforts working with and preserving this landrace.

If you have had time to explore this site a bit, you have found there is lots of interest in such approaches here.  Anything you can share about the depth and breadth of this gene pool will be met with great interest.  We look forward to hearing a bit more about your work! 

[farmher]

Thanks! I will now that winter is here, right now finishing up grant submission but will help and learn.. glad I found this site! That photo is El Palacio is back when I had long hair, forgot!!

[imgrimmer]

farmher Welcome!
Do you have more background information about Canoncito?
I am interested where it comes from. Are there siblings of it? Maybe sweeter ones?

Thank you!

[walt]

The link above has a comment, that the landrace that has always been direct-seeded has more tap root than transplants, and that continual transplanting may select for less taproot.  That is a concideration also for the direct seeding tomato thread.  Going back to the wild species of tomato for genes, as some of us are doing, we should think about that taproot.  We usually just think about the above ground part of the plant
For myself, I want to try Canoncito for direct home use, of course, but also to cross it with wild chiltipine.  My chiltipins are perfect, except they only start to bloom about the time of first frost.  Sure, they transplant well into gallon pots, the reverse of when other people transplant peppers.  But crossing with an extremely early pepper, then a few backcrosses to chiiltipine, and they should bloom and make a crop during the growing season.  I'll still take them inside.  They make pretty house plants, and I've kept the same chiltipin plants for 5 years.  They go back in the ground summers. 

[farmher]

Hi All, The Canoncito pepper is from here in New Mexico grown in the same field for over 100 years. It originated most likely in Mexico and in South American and came with the first Spanish explorers in the 1600-1700's to Santa Fe. Grown by the Picuris tribes before the Spanish right above our valley. I have been conserving it for many years but we felt some seed in 2014 should be donated to allow plant breeders to work with it as genetic diverse peppers are very rare. I think this string spoke about Wild Garden seed creating a heat-less sweet pepper. it is sweet even with the heat levels, we do not sell it outside NM otherwise as we are seed conservationists and is grown on the acequias here by traditional farmers, so we maintain backup populations and seed for these growers. We did donate some to Oregon State for trials and Frank Morton is I think on his F3 generation by now, I would encourage you to get some from him as soon as possible since it is in the early stages of acclimating to his climate (only 4 years in) so the genetic diversity should be intact. When we dug up the plants for trials back in 2011-2013 the transplants had a more fibrous root, lower yields and the direct seeded had a taproot similar to a small carrot. It is most likely an F125 generation or more in our area. We do not select for new varieties, but we have seen sweet pepper phenotypes later in the season that are heatless which we include in the population we grow to keep the genetics intact. The entire population shifts with environment and it is something to behold for sure. We do not collect the seed by pod phenotype separate or heat level. We selected for high color, low disease, earliness, good post harvest storage (MT 6 months at room temperature), and pod thickness. It has LT 5% disease and is grown routinely with microbe inoculation to encourage symbiosis.

[steev]

Well, I'm sure we here are very excited about your participation; clearly you are highly experienced and a very valuable resource.

[farmher]

I am glad I found this site! so busy running trials in the field cannot even look up half the time. We do have this seed available at Sante Fe farmers market one on one to explain the variety to the public and the open source seed initiative status. If anyone is in NM we are there every Saturday selling seeds and produce!

[diane]

How exciting to have you in the group!

I am planning to direct-sow this year, but I was hoping to share my seeds, so wanted to make sure they are viable.

I sowed seeds from my mid-June ripe pepper in late June. They didn't germinate, so I tried again in early September.
Still no germination. On February 5, I sowed some more, and they are up! (Heat is not a variable - my kitchen is
about 18 C all year.

I have never sown peppers earlier than February, so I don't know how other varieties I've saved seed from behave.
Is there a required after-ripening period before they germinate? I have read of other plants that produce seeds
with immature embryos. Are peppers also like that?

[diane]

I have just moved my pepper seedlings into individual pots and
the Canoncito seedlings have a much bigger root system than any of the others
- 46 kinds, 340 plants

[imgrimmer]

I will sow Canoncito later. Please keep us updated aboit your plants. I am very interested.

[diane]

On May 1 I sowed seeds in the garden and in an allotment I rent. No germination so far.

I'm glad I also sowed in pots in early February because I have peppers already (not red yet, though).

[imgrimmer]

I have sown it some weeks ago. It is very fast growing much faster than other peppers. I think it will outgrow my other peppers in some weeks.