One can find a lot of contradicting information about this topic on the web. It would be nice to have a definite answer to this question.
Does anyone have a solitary plant (with guaranteed no other plants in the neighbourhood) that produces berries? Or are there any studies that came to a conclusion?
From my experience with these peppercorn plants. They tend to self pollinate at a slower rate than lets say black pepper or garden average bells and jalepeno's.
These plants don't always flower a female companion. Sometimes it takes a lot of time depending on its age as well. They are kinda like the pineapple of the peppercorn families.
My recommendation would be to obtain a red plastic green house overlay and shade it with that. Or just get a red grow light to assist the flowering process. It fastens the cycle up a bit.
Zanthoxylum tend to be dioecious (one sexed) so a male and female tree need to be near each other. The male releases the essential pollen only but doesn't fruit. The female tree upon receiving the pollen in the female flower's sets fruit.
They are only peppers in name and are completely unrelated to Chilli peppers (family Solonaceae) and also unrelated to Black pepper (family Peperomiaceae). Zanthoxylum are in the Rue family (Rutaceae) and so related to Citrus trees.
