Cultivating Greatness
Growing Rare Varieties in Isolation for Unique Flavor

When cultivating a variety of peppers, netting helps keep bees and other insects away, reducing the risk of cross-pollination and ensuring the isolation of specific plants for quality assurance. By doing this our chances increase that phenotype traits will remain consistent and mirror their original heritage. When buying seeds many growers say they isolate their peppers by growing them far apart in separate locations. The problem is that this will only elevate the risk of cross-pollination when plants are grown outdoors, making it increasingly difficult to maintain the unique characteristics of each cultivar. As time goes by genetics will gradually diversify.

While segregating plants with netting is currently our best option, some insects are so tiny they can slip through even the smallest openings. Despite our efforts to prevent insects and other creatures from infiltrating, there’s always a risk of some getting inside. Achieving 100% seed isolation outdoors is impossible, but we strive to minimize cross-pollination. Regardless of how many steps you take to prevent insects and other microorganisms, life finds a way. No such thing as 100% seed isolation when growing outside but we gear towards minimizing cross-pollination using netting and carefully isolating them among the many varieties in the growing season.

We make sure to get results and keep quality assurance of phenotype while improving the genome of our plants.

At Monster Peppers, our focus is on developing unique pepper varieties through selective breeding, carefully choosing only those with exceptional traits for seed selection. The interactions between individual peppers and their environment play a crucial role in determining whether their genetic information will be passed on, and over time, various factors—such as growing conditions—significantly influence the final outcome of the pods. By growing seeds from the same pod in two different locations with distinct environmental conditions, you can witness two separate evolutionary paths unfold. This diversity showcases the adaptability of pepper plants while reflecting our commitment to cultivating distinct flavors and traits that embody the essence of each variety. By understanding these dynamics, we aim to create peppers that not only thrive in their environments but also captivate the palate with their unique characteristics. We are here to bring you decades worth of quality.

We make it a priority to hand-select only the varieties with the fun and exciting traits you want to see in your peppers. You want seeds that will produce plants resembling the photos on display. However, there are many reasons, both environmental and biological factors can cause your pods to develop differently. Each seed results from the fertilization of an ovum with sperm from a separate pollen grain. Since each pollen grain may come from a different pepper plant, the seeds will naturally vary from one another. That’s why using netting to prevent cross-pollination between different varieties is so crucial in maintaining consistency and quality.

Monster Peppers
Creating Hybrids And varieties

Peppers have two sets of ♂ chromosomes ♀. Being self-fertile, a chili plant that pollinates itself will produce peppers containing seeds that will grow a very similar replica of the original plant. When you take two different varieties of pepper plants and place them close together, they most likely can and will pollinate each other. This cross pollination occurs by taking one chromosome from a mother plant and one from a father plant that results in creating a hybrid chili pod. 

Monster Peppers Picks Selective Phenotypes And Genotypes

What are Environment + Phenotypes + Genotypes + Mutations?

Some of the most exotic peppers come from different biomes around the world. That's because the environment plays an important factor in the phenotype development, which will later determine the outcome of the pepper pod’s physical traits. Some pods are smooth while others are spiky or rougher in appearance. Phenotypes are influenced by both the genotype and by the unique circumstances in which the plant has lived its life, including everything that has ever happened to the plant. We often refer to these as “nature” - the unique genome that the plants carry, and “nurture”  - the environment that your plant has lived in. 

Environment is the circumstances, objects, or conditions by which one is surrounded. The physical, chemical, and biotic factors act upon an organism and ultimately determine its form and survival.

Phenotype is a description of physical characteristics that can be observed. These can be visible characteristics like plant height or pepper pod color, but also the overall health, the disease history, and even behavior and general disposition of the plant. Does the plant grow rapidly or slows down after every transplant? Does the plant get stressed easily during transplants from one pot to the next? Can it afford to be over watered or under watered? Does the plant like music or TV? These are all considered phenotypes. 

Genotype is the genes that help create those phenotypes. A genotype is a complete heritable genetic identity; a unique set of genes or genetic material present in a cell or organism with all of the information needed to build that organism and allow it to grow and develop in a certain way. Each pepper seed is very likely to contain similar phenotypes but the overall genotype can be different.

Mutations occurs when DNA is damaged or changed in such a way as to alter the genetic message carried by that gene. Mutations result from errors during DNA replication, mitosis, and meiosis, or other types of damage during error-prone repair or cause an error during other forms of repair or during translesion synthesis. Mutations may also result from insertion or deletion of segments of DNA due to mobile genetic elements. Mutations may or may not produce discernible changes in the observable characteristics (phenotype) of an organism. Mutations play a part in both normal and abnormal biological processes including: evolution.

Contorted Coco

The Contorted Coco originally was a mutation from the Peach Bhut pepper and the rarity of this strain almost went into extinction. Then comes along Monster Peppers. We brought it back into the spotlight. Its main phenotype is its consistent, twisted shapes and contorted form with dark and bright hues of chocolate. However, despite this pod’s current display, its origins can be trace back to ancestors that share no physical similarities on the surface level.

Mustard Dessert Beetle

Genes do not always reveal everything until faced with environmental conditions. The Mustard Dessert Beetle has a dark green pigment, but once the pods are exposed to direct sunlight the color shifts towards a bright, yellow mustard. If the pods remain in complete shade, with little exposure to sun, they will still reach maturity without ever changing color. Its genome determines its to ability to change to a specific color once its fully exposed to sunlight. The color is the phenotype being displayed. Only one side of the pepper pod was exposed to sunlight, hence the appearance. Environment determines the outcome of some phenotypes in pepper strains. This can explain why some pepper pods look vastly different from other growers’ in different parts of the world. Over time those strains will change because of their environmental influences in order to adapt to and that’s how new evolutionary paths are formed.

Vampire Pepper

These Vampire Peppers are all different pods from different individual Vampire plants. Each of those plants came from seeds of the same pod. As you can see, the pods still produced distinctively different phenotypes. Each pod's physical appearance is decided from random DNA sequences. Peppers may all come from the same family, but the outcomes can change. Pepper seeds from the same pod are closely related to each other; however, they are not genetically identical. Not every pepper pod is going to come out looking identical to previous pods from past grow seasons. Pods from the same mother plant grown in isolation will all still have genetic variations from one another. Each seed in a single pod is a genetic individual. This is something that is not expressed enough and that should be public knowledge to all consumers in the market. Genetic diversity can be controlled through isolation.

Growing peppers is a living craft that you will be continuing and editing yourself based on which pods you continue to grow.

Chili growing is fun and rewarding in itself. Everything and anything can happen when it comes to the nature of growing chili peppers. Peppers are known to change phenotypically over time. You must keep growing to find the results you are searching for, when it comes to your own preference. When Monster Peppers are growing out strains, it is to improve them genetically towards sustainability. This process takes many seeds as potential candidates and requires patience. Traditional plant breeding takes decades, but in that process we’re going to upgrade and add our personal flair. The fun thing is you can also do the same! Exposing our plants to various types of environmental factors helps bring out the phenotypes that may lay dormant. We always trying to push and introduce new phenotype into our strains. After a full grow season of obstacles and challenges for the plants to overcome, they will produce seeds. The final step is screening the seeds and selecting those that will have highest chance of germination. We observe the health of seeds from size, color, and shape, and only pick quality over quantity. Thus the cycle continues. Despite how harsh our growing methods are when raising our peppers, we produce quality seeds as result of those trials that our plants overcome. Exposing our plants to various types of environmental factors helps bring out the phenotypes that may lay dormant.

In terms of the Vampire Pepper, we work towards combining the best traits including the decorative foliage.