Sunday 22 May 2016

Enjoya Peppers (Flame Peppers)

Enjoya the first striped sweet pepper, how gorgeous are these!







Wow, I think they are just beautiful; the fruits ripen from green and take on amazing flame streaks. The fruits look like they are red on yellow and the pattern on each fruit is slightly different which makes them even more visually appealing. 

Last year I was captivated by how pretty these fruits are, when I saw their picture in a newspaper write up about them. I was unable to find any then, despite them being marketed through the supermarket Asda in the UK. I did finally locate some about ten days ago, I bought three. They are pricey at over £1 each, but I couldn't resist trying some and hoping for some seed inside to save too.

Bonus, they are tasty too!

The history behind the pepper is a little confusing, some sources say the pepper was found 2 years ago Hortidaily and here D. Mail report Asda have been working with growers for the last seven years to produce them?

Reportedly they are growing these on grafted plants, I hope this isn't an indication that they are only vegetatively propagated? I very much hope this is a heritable trait passed on through saved seeds. With this in mind (although it is a bit late in the season to be starting peppers off), I’ve sown some of the seeds I saved from the bought fruit. 

What to expect, well if the stripes are a heritable trait and it is a stable variety, then I will have plants the same as the parent and with stripey fruit. Though whether Enjoya is a stable variety or a F1 is another matter. 

If Enjoya is an F1 and assuming the stripes can be passed on through seed, then there will be two outcomes depending on dominance. If the 'pepper fruit stripe' trait is dominant then all the fruiting plants will have stripes, though plant and fruits will differ from plant to plant and parent. If it is recessive then as long as I grow enough F2 plants, I should find some with striped fruits, though again none will be identical to each other or the parent.

If the stripes can only be passed on vegetatively then all my plants, regardless of being from an open pollinated or an F1 variety, will be without stripes.  

Wish me luck!

26 comments:

  1. It looks like we're doing the same experiment. A friend brought one of these peppers to a party. I didn't know they were being sold in the US yet, so I was very pleasantly surprised.

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  2. Fantastic, I'm glad you found some seeds too, I look forward to your progress and insight. I always get absorbed when I visit your blog (in a good way) and have to remember to breathe, fascinating and so much to take in. My 'Enjoya' seeds are starting to pop, a few little seed leaves this morning, exciting!

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    1. where can i buy online enjoya seeds please

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  3. Fantastic looking fruits, will watch this with Interest

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    1. Could you pl help me to get few seeds of Enjoya stipped sp? I shall pay through paypal.

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    2. We don't quite yet know how striped the fruits will be on the plants we are growing, it might be worth you waiting a little while.

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  4. A pepper friend gave me seeds too and I got 5 seeds to germinate. Right now 3 have small little peppers but all are covered in flowers, so, no matter what, they are prolific. I've got my fingers crossed for strips, but honestly, not really expecting any.

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  5. Brilliant! Your plants are a little ahead of mine, just waiting for the first fruits to set. Fingers crossed here too, grow little peppers :)

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  6. If I could post photos of their progress I would. :-) Right now there are two bigger fruit (with several smaller ones), each about an 1" wide and long, 3 lobed, and very dark green.

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  7. Very interesting, what amazing looking fruits.

    Pam, are the leaves variegated or just green? The "fish" chilli has variegated foliage and striped fruit so I wonder if similar genes are at play with 'enjoya'. Even if your first peppers are solid coloured I would grow out there seeds and see if any of the following generation are striped.

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  8. Nope, leaves are just green. So far the fruits are getting big, all the 5 plants have at least one fruit. I thought they were solid green, but, if you look closely they are dark green with lighter green stripes. Maybe they are going to change. I felt pretty negative that they would, but, this striping gives me a little hope. I'll keep you updated.... if you want.

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  9. Not to be a pest, but so far one is changing. It's still green, but it has a big yellow splotch on it. I am in complete shock.

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    1. OMG how exciting!My poor plants are being totally neglected, though they do have some fruit. Sorry for not catching up sooner. I'm not sure how to do other peoples pictures here. But if it's not too cheeky would you like to join are little forum at https://www.growingfoodsavingseeds.co.uk/ I'd so love to follow your progress a little more. I've been meaning to make a thread about Enjoya for ages and if you could post some pictures there that would be amazing :)

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    2. There is also a conversation going on at tomatoville (http://www.tomatoville.com/showthread.php?s=c716bdf46fe3018dfb1a9c679f58a532&t=41113&page=10) with several people growing out seeds and posting occasional plant reports.

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  10. They are available in the states. I grew one this year from saved seeds. I wouldn't say its conclusive, but I ended up with a yellow pepper no stripes. I have 2 more still on the plant that are green. The yellow one took forever to change to yellow so maybe if I had left it longer it would have been striped. So I can't say for sure but it looks like the trait won't show up.

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  12. I have 5 plants all have turned from green to yellow. One has some discoloration (the first fruit to form) that looks like it might be turning red, but, when I pressed it, it was soft, so I think the discoloration is over ripening. I think you are right Eric, I think the plant produces yellow, no stripes. well, I was hoping, and I haven't removed the one with the discoloration yet, I'll wait until it's definite that it's starting to rot.

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  13. Sorry, I meant to say all 5 plants have fruit that has turned from green to yellow.

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  14. It's official with mine, the discoloration was not it getting red stripes, the whole pepper that has it is now soft. So, solid yellow pepper.

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  15. Any updates on these plants?

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  16. Yep, they are dead and frozen outside. They never did develop stripes, every single plant and every single fruit turned out to be solid yellow and honestly, the taste was not very good either, so I put them outside and let them die. Too bad, I had high hopes.

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  17. Jayb,I`d like to contact you on a personal matter privately.Would you look me up on facbook under randall bell springfield Illinois usa to chat.Thank-you, Randy

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  18. awesome but no updates, many people wants to grow it

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  19. I bought some of these peppers and almost all the seeds r almost big enough to start flowering lol I think I grew to many hopefully they all r striped in the end

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