A couple of years ago we bought a young chili pepper plant and really loved the flavor and heat of the chilies it produced. So at the end of the season I saved some of the seeds and planted them the next spring, starting them inside in small germination trays. The germination rate was decent and the seedlings grew well for the first couple of weeks (to about the 8-leaf stage). But after that, they slowed way down and it was probably a couple of months until they reached a 4-inch height. This took so long that there was no point planting them in the garden, so I just kept them indoors in a regular pot. Other than being very small (never taller than 6 inches), the plant seemed healthy enough and even produced chilies. I tried the same thing with those original seeds the next spring with the same results. It was like a bonsai chili. And the second time I kept the plant through the autumn and winter (indoors) and still have it. It has a bunch of flowers and young chilies, but it still really small.
I would have figured this was a fluke, but I tried the same thing with seeds I collected from a delicious and very productive kale plant I had a couple of summers ago. Planted those this spring in a germination tray, had very high rates of very rapid germination (like three days), good initial growth, then dramatic slowdown.
So now this has happened three different times (twice with the chilies and once with the kale), so I doubt it is a fluke. As far as I know, I was giving them the right amount of water, sun, etc and they were not potbound in the germination tray. And I have actually planted the baby kale plants in the garden outside. They transitioned fine, but are still growing very slowly. I should add that I have started other vegetables inside from commercial seeds, and these matured just fine to normal size.
I figure it might be a function of the parent plants being heavily hybridized or genetically-modified, but wouldn’t that just make them either not germinate at all or not produce fruit? Would it result in stunting?
Any insights?
No, that’s not how hybridization and subsequent generations work.
Hybrids are a cross between two different strains of a vegetable. The result is a plant that combines benefits of both parent strains - such as good flavor and rapid growth, as an example. In some cases it does result in sterility, such as seedless watermelon, but your plants did produce seeds.
Usually (there are exceptions) the seeds produced by a hybrid plant will germinate and grow, but they won’t breed true. They’ll lose some of the traits of the hybrid parents. That doesn’t mean they’re inferior as plants, they’ll grow and produce offspring of their own, but they won’t necessarily be optimized for human desires.
If you like your “bonsai” chili plant then keep growing it. It’s just never going to be like it’s hybrid ancestor unless you can find the right other heirloom strain to pair it with to produce a generation of hybrids again.
Your kale and peppers aren’t “stunted”, they’re reverting to the traits of the hybrid vegetable’s parents, reverting to ancestral characteristics.
Hybrid seeds are popular for gardens because they grow into plants with a LOT of traits we find desirable. But unless you’re able to maintain separate populations of parent strains to re-hybridize yourself over and over you won’t be able to generate those results in your backyard. It’s a lot easier to purchase seeds every year.
If you wants plants where you can save the seeds and replant them every year and get somewhat consistent results you want to look at heirloom varieties. There are organizations that promote these varieties and encourage people to grow them, but my experience is that it can be more difficult to get good and consistent results from these varieties, and while they make have better/more intense flavor, different colors, and other interesting features they may not be as productive, or more sensitive to climate/water levels, the produce may not have as long a shelf life, and so on.
thanks Broomstick. This is really informative.
It’s all a bit ironic actually. The only reason that I harvested the seeds from these plants (and for the kale it meant leaving the previous year’s plants to ripen well into July) was that they really stood out as remarkable. The chilis were very spicy with a rich flavor and the kale was super tall (over 6 feet) and very pest-resistant.
It never occurred to me that the second generation would revert to ancestral versions that might lack the actual qualities that inspired me to save the seeds in the first place.
So ignorance fought! But nothing lost this year as I also bought new chili and kale plants that are doing just fine.
actually, I just remembered that in recent years, drops from my cherry tomato and physalis have germinated and I let them grow into mature plants, with fruit similar to what I remember from the parent. So I guess sometimes the second generation can be OK…
My experience with peppers to date (hot ornamental-type) has been that plants grown from seed tend to resemble their hybrid parents pretty closely. F2s typically wouldn’t show marked stunting compared to their F1 parents; if anything, taller and rangier plants would result in the next generation.
There are other factors that can lead to stunting/lack of significant growth. They include seedlings being potbound, being grown in nutrient-poor soil or getting checked by environmental conditions i.e. cold.
Over the winter I started a lot of seeds indoors under lights, ornamental and vegetable plant varieties. They germinated well but after getting their first couple of sets of true leaves, development stalled. I eventually figured out that something in the growth medium (75% coir, 25% vermiculite or perlite) was responsible, probably excessive salt content in the coir blocks I bought online. Once seedlings were repotted in a different, non-coir mix and brought outdoors, many resumed growth and are doing well.