Paranoid Pepper Plant Momma

[lo123]

Fruit does start very small. but it shouldn't be elongated like Jalepenos. Did you grow Jalepeno or serrano chilles nearby??

Does that mean you shouldn't plant jalapenos and bell peppers next to each other?

[OakLeaf]

Cross-pollination affects the seed, not the fruit.

Plus, according to seedsavers.org (which also answered my question about beans):

Peppers produce perfect, mostly self-pollinating flowers. Solitary bees will pollinate if a more desirable pollen is not available in the area.

Immature bell peppers will have different shapes depending on the variety.

There's also the possibility that the plants or seeds you bought were mislabeled. I've had that happen more than once! Do your peppers have a pronounced indentation at the blossom end? All bell peppers I know of do.

Sorry about your storm damage Smurf. That's so frustrating.

[smilingcat]

I'm bit cautious, so I prefer to keep them apart. Be it squash, zucchini, pepper plants, tomatoes, beans. some are self-polinators and its safe while others are not. Its bit trouble some to remember which is which so I do the lazy person thing and keep similar plants away from each other.

In some instances I'm not too concerned about cross polination so I plant next to each other like Serrano and Jalapenos. But my bell pepper sits far away from it. Beets, and other root vegetables, I mix them up unless I want to save the seeds for next year, those I'm pretty careful not to get them crossed.

Best thing to do is go to the library and check. I don't trust lot of people working at nurseries especially those from the big box store.

[OakLeaf]

This isn't from the big box store.

Cross-pollination affects the seed, not the fruit.

Plant or animal, sexual reproduction has certain basic fundamentals. Having a child by someone of a different race won't change your uterus. It's the same with plants.

[smilingcat]

Oh that's right. I save my seeds for planting the following year. And the seedsaver.org is a wonderful site.

My Green Zebra's, Roma tomatoes, Cherry tomatoes, bell peppers, Acorn squash, Basil, parsley, chinese long beans and few other things are from last years seeds. ME BAD...

Its the year after you have to watch out.