I have a pepper plant that I really want to save seeds from. I tried (unsuccessfully) earlier this year to pollinate/bag blossoms. This plant is located away from all of my others, and is the only one still setting fruit. If I save seeds from some of the very late fruits, do you think there is a good chance it will come true? I realize there could still be a chance of cross pollination.


Does anyone have any good tips on how to pollinate and isolate blossoms? Would putting netting around the whole plant work, then pollinate by hand? I'm really wanting to learn how to do this.

You have a good chance of them coming true if they are isolated from the others. If there have been a lot of flowers in between them, that helps too since the bee will visit more attractive flowers instead. 500 feet is the minimum recommended distance to ensure no cross pollination.
Pepper flowers are perfect meaning they have all the parts to make babies on their own so they do not need to be pollinated by another flower. So you only need to cover the blossoms to make sure cross pollination doesn't occur. You can put netting over the whole plant. Some people build little mesh cages to go over the plants.
Why you were not successful earlier, I do not know. It could of been the weather at the time.
Remy

Remy--thank you so much. I didn't realize peppers don't need pollination from another flower. We had a difficult growing season here early on (lots of cool temps/rain), so that might have been part of the problem when I tried earlier. I don't think I have 500 ft. between these and my other peppers, but the others have not flowered or set fruit for quite some time, while this plant is still blooming and setting fruit. We're having lots of warm temps recently, so pepper is loving that!
I really appreciate you sharing this information with me--it will be so helpful.

Linda

You're welcome. Your cool temps are probably the cause earlier. It seems to often be the cause when people notice no fruit production. Early cool weather must send a signal to some plants that it is too soon to start reproducing.
Since the plant you want to get fruit from flowered and set fruit later, you should be fine.
Remy