Intergeneric Capsicum grafting

General Fruit Growing
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Has anyone found a suitable cold-hardy, compatible rootstock for peppers?

I’m considering grafting pepper scions to an established cold-hardy rootstock as a way to rush the juvenile growth phase. It could be a way to improve yields of C. chinense or pubescens in temperate climates.

Here in Ohio, bittersweet nightshade (S. dulcamara) and smooth groundcherry (P. longifolia) seem like the best bets in terms of cold hardiness and vegetative quality, although they’re pretty distant from peppers. There appears to be no publicly available information on these grafts; either they haven’t been tried or they failed and weren’t reported.

I sent an email to the chili pepper institute asking if they have info on these two grafts or anything else relevant, but I haven’t heard back yet.

Another path to the same goal, the Go-tomato method A new graft hybrid technique - by Chance shows promise for passing genes across a graft, even if it’s delayed-incompatible.

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Interesting. My tomatillos were so vigorous started from seed in Feb that by the time they went out last week of april they were in 3 gallon pots and filling it out. Might be worth a try if perennial doesn’t work out

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Could be worth running that experiment in parallel if no one else has.

Tomatillo is pretty close to groundcherry, but it’s conceivable that one may be more compatible than the other.

The only published data I’ve seen on the subject of intergeneric pepper grafting is that tomato and potato don’t work. Eggplant might work, but it’s neither cold hardy nor vigorous enough to be that interesting.

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Capsicum flexuosum is the most cold hardy pepper I know of. It’s tolerant down to 10 F and lives for several decades. Seeds can take between 4-10 weeks to germinate.

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At 10F, does C. flexuosum just die back to ground level like a fig, or does it die outright?

Interesting regardless; could be a useful rootstock in zone 8 or so.

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Found a little more info. Pepper on tomato, eggplant, and hairy groundcherry have all demonstrated delayed-incompatibility. This is the first I’ve seen of capsicum - physalis grafting, and it’s not encouraging. Hairy groundcherry incompatibility doesn’t necessarily prove that tomatillo and longleaf groundcherry are also incompatible, but it certainly points in that direction. Bittersweet nightshade seems to be on its own untested branch, so it’s still a strong maybe IMO.

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I haven’t ever seen root sprouts in capsicum so even if the roots are alive the plant is probably dead.

Lycianthes is the genus most closely related to capsicum. They are not particularly hardy but Lycianthes rantonnetii (blue potato bush) has the advantage of being easy available. Another species Lycianthes asarifolia is invasive in Houston TX so that one can at least handle zone 8

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Depends on how cold it gets and for how long. I had about 8 peppers resprout from the roots this year, most of the C. annuum, but also a couple of C. baccatum.

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I haven’t heard back from the chile pepper institute. No great surprise, there.

I just collected 8-10 bittersweet nightshade berries from 7 different plants. I’m going to stratify the seeds (supposedly helpful, if not strictly necessary) in the fridge, grow out the healthiest sprouts, and attempt to graft peppers on in the spring.

Are there any cultivars of peppers (ideally C. Chinense) that are known to be broadly graft-tolerant? I want to maximize the chance of at least one graft succeeding, but I don’t want to test a jillion different scions.