Black Pearl Photo Updated

[travis]

Here's a link to a USDA Web page with a short article about Black Pearl: http://www.ars.usda.gov/is/pr/2006/060426.htm

Ms. Laura McGinnis emailed the following answers regarding Black Pearl:

"Thank you for your interest in our research. I spoke with the scientists and they say that Black Pearl is open-pollinated. The cultivar is protected by Plant Variety Protection. I hope that information is helpful to you. Please let me know if I can help in any other way."

The plant in the picture is from Totally Tomato seeds ... 2.50 for 10 seeds. Every seed germinated. This plant is the largest of the three I kept. It is very erect and just now beginning to set fruit.

The leaves are beginning to get darker now that I set it out in more sun. Previously, I had kept it under the eaves to protect it from torrential downpours. Now it's hot and dry around here.

I hit my hand with a hammer ... that's not scrophilus or anything.

PV

[nctomatoman]

Very interesting! I saw Black Pearl growing in an arboretum - "borrowed" a ripe fruit, saved seeds. Surprised to hear it is OP, because there is great variability in the seedlings I obtained from the saved seed (different depths of purple in the young foliage, from none to lots)....

I am growing out two of them this year - will post pics when they are interesting enough to look at. At this point, the one with the pale foliage has peppers nothing like Black Pearl, or anything else I've yet seen.

[travis]

This is another shot of same plant.

PV

[giardiniere]

PV

That's a handsome looking plant (love the dark foliage)....the hammer bite on your hand is another story. That had to be worth a few cuss words, unless you're a better man than I.

[travis]

I was tryin' to ratchet the blade off'n my lawn mower, an' the ratchet handle weren't long enough for leverage ...

A hammer came into play. You shoulda seen the wound a week ago. Nasty. Bled like a stuck pig. Cussed like a drunken sailor.

Still ain't got the new blade on the mower. Borrowed father-in-law's snapper. It cut the grass to short, dangit. Fertilized the lawn. After it rained the other day, it now looks like a daggone jungle ... hmmm

PV

[travis]

Here's what they look like after a week or so from blossom set.





I'm expecting them to eventually turn red.

PV

[nctomatoman]

Saved seed is producing two very attractive selections that are very different from Black Pearl itself - will take some pics and post now that it appears that we won't have 40 days and 40 nights of solid rain!

[Cecilia_MD7a]

So has anybody actually TASTED the fruit yet? I'm assuming it's hot.

[travis]

Originally Posted by nctomatoman

Very interesting! I saw Black Pearl growing in an arboretum - "borrowed" a ripe fruit, saved seeds. Surprised to hear it is OP, because there is great variability in the seedlings I obtained from the saved seed (different depths of purple in the young foliage, from none to lots)....

I am growing out two of them this year - will post pics when they are interesting enough to look at. At this point, the one with the pale foliage has peppers nothing like Black Pearl, or anything else I've yet seen.

Craig,

I looked around the Internet and found this pdf:
http://www.usna.usda.gov/Newintro/BlackPearl_LR.pdf

In it, they give the parentage of Black Pearl as "a cross between a purple-foliaged plant (94C27) and a green-foliaged plant bearing clusters of small, round fruits (86-Arb-1)." They go on to say that the purple-foliaged parent was selected from 'Royal Black' which you probably know was introduced in 1995 by SESE from seed originally sent them by Carolyn Male.
http://www.southernexposure.com/Merc...uct_code=46511

When you look at Southern Exposure's 'Royal Black' you don't see any foliage variegation, but when you read Tomato Growers Supply's description of their 'Royal Black' seed offer, the possible parentage of Black Pearl is more obvious.

"Absolutely beautiful ornamental pepper is the blackest of any pepper plant we’ve ever seen. Compact plants grow no more than 2 ft. tall with deep purple-black foliage, dark stems, purple flowers, and jet black tiny piquin-type peppers. The effect is quite striking in the vegetable garden or even the landscape. If you’ve never grown a black plant, you should really give it a try. Peppers will eventually ripen to red, and are edible although they will be very hot. 90 days."
http://www.tomatogrowers.com/hot5.htm

I'm eagerly awaiting pictures of your Black Pearl grow-outs to see what they look like in comparison to the original. I think I see what may be going on here ... Black Pearl's parentage is maybe a proprietary selection of OPs, and BP itself may be somewhere between F1 and completely stabilized ... you think?

PV

[SelfSufficient1]

So much for checking with the "scientists" lol. I think it is a beautiful plant, I just don't have a lot of use for hot peppers.

[nctomatoman]

Purple leaf plant selected from saved seeds from Hot Pearls (grown at an arboretum):



Flower:



Developing fruit (still very small)



Very pale purplish/mostly green leaf selection:

Plant:



flower:



Fruit:




Pretty cool, hey!

[travis]

Yeah, real cool, Craig.

I see some similarities with "F1" in both your plants.

They both have tight clusters of blossoms and fruit.

They both have that compact, branchy growth too. And it seems to have nearly round fruit ... at least just past the blossom stage.

However, the leaf shape is a little less "fat" and wrinkled than the "F1" on both plants , doncha think?
I'm gonna have to save seeds from this year's BPs and see what comes from them this fall and winter.

Thanks for the photos for comparison and for future reference.

PV

[nctomatoman]

They are growing quickly - updated photos from today.

Green leaf F2-



Purple leaf F2 -

[nctomatoman]

Latest views of the two Black Pearl F2s that I am growing -









Both of these look to be beautiful plants and worth future selection.

[travis]

I wanted to show these three peppers.

The larger round pepper in the foreground is Black Pearl.

The smaller round pepper in the background is Largo Purple. Notice the nearly identical shape and colorations, but just downsized. Even the stems are the same colorations.

Now, the pepper on the left is something that arose from a seed in the same envelope with the Largo Purple from TGS. When the seedlings were small, they all looked pretty much the same, but as they got to going along, and got more sunlight, the little round Largo got the solid deep purple leaves, purple stems, and violet flowers ... then the round fruit that sets upward from the branches just like the Black Pearl only not in clusters.

The pointed pepper's seedling got some initial purple shading on the leaves ... very slight ... but that soon disappeared as the season progressed and exposure to sunlight increased and it just got pretty much green foliage. It has white flowers with violet tipped flower pedals, and the pods hang like pendants.

Now why I posted all three together is so you'll go back up the thread and look at Craig's grown-out Black Pearls. And then look at what the breeder says about Black Pearl having been a cross between a purple leafed pepper and a round fruited pepper.

Personally, I think they crossed Largo Purple (or something very similar) with something to make the leaf size and fruit size larger and set in clusters. And I think Largo Purple has something in it that throws back to a pepper that is pointed and ripens green, purple, bronze to red just like Black Pearl.

Anyway, right or wrong, I just thought you might like to see that.

PV