If such an intergeneric cross were possible, it most certainly would have
been done long ago in Pre-Columbian times.

Since there is no such thing as a Capsicum X Lycopersicon hybrid, you figure
out whether it is possible or not. Simply crossing the two plants won't
work.

You would need to employ sophisticated gene splicing techniques that
probably would NOT get FDA approval!!!!


"Mook23" wrote in message
...
Hi folks, I've brought this topic up in this group before and people
looked at me like I had two heads. However, I've made a little head way
since I first appreared a few years ago and I'm looking for further input.

My long term project is to create a pepper/tomato hybrid that is spicy
like a pepper but retains tomato properties. Now that you're done
laughing, read on a little further.

I found a species of tomato that seems share some characteristics with the
common garden bell pepper. The "Striped Cavern"
http://www.rachelssupply.com/Tomato.htm
(near the bottom of the page)
looks like a good tomato to start with. As I understand it, the gene that
controls whether a pepper is "hot" or not is dominant and that polen from
a hot pepper can render non-hot peppers hot if you grow from seed. So,
here's the next step. I've got to introduce some polen from a suitable
hot pepper to the Striped Cavern. Should I first concentrate on trying to
get results from cross breeding the tomato with a regular bell pepper (the
two species are MUCH closer than any other tomato/pepper combination would
be) and then introduce some hot pepper pollen a few generations down the
road? The idea is to get this species of tomato to produce some heat,
then breed it with a more robust tomato to get a jucier inside.

How should I go about this. I've got a pretty good idea that it will
eventually work out for me, but is simple cross pollination enough to
achieve the desired results? Will this even result in fertile seeds, or
will I get some kind of weird plant that I can only propigate through
cuttings?

Any help is greatly appreciated, although please refrain from making fun
of me. I got enough of that last time around.