Saving Heirloom Pepper Seeds

Rita Heikenfeld, from AboutEating.com, had a bumper crop of peppers this year. In this video she shows you how to save pepper seeds from one of her favorites from her garden -- a jalapeño. Pepper seeds can easily be dried and stored over the winter to be grown in the spring. They let you save your heirloom seeds for next year.

Category:

Howto & Style

Tags:

• Pepper
• seeds
• saving
• heirloom
• storing
• winter
• garden
• rita
• heikenfeld
• abouteating.com

[RobinsRandom]

I have Three peeper plants in my Garden right now.. that are simply from the TOPS of bell peppers that I got from the store. I cut the tops off, and seed the peppers, than went out side and put them in the ground.... NOW mind you I did not really expect any thing to grow... but I now have THREE pepper plants about 6 inches tall. The tops had SEEDs, peppers grew from the SEEDs not just the tops..

[RecipeCook]

@RobinsRandom

Let us know how they turn out.

[Ogizzie]

Now I'm definitely not one to nitpick but...this lady's method doesn't really work.

She tried to save seeds from a green (unripened) pepper. The seeds aren't developed enough to be fertile. If you try saving seeds from a green pepper depending on the variety they will either not germinate or schribble up and turn brown.

If you want to save pepper seeds you must let the pepper ripen completely on the vine. This way you will have healthy seeds and great germination rates. Hope this was helpful!

[mistanea93]

thanks for showing me how to save pepper seeds.

[RHeikenfeld]

If the pepper is mature and the seed pod is hung in a place that's dry, the seeds shouldn't turn black. There's lots of ways to save seeds. A friend of mine rinses them to remove any membrane and then puts them on a towel (not terrycloth since they'll stick) to dry and then she puts the completely dried seeds in a glass bottle.

[seaner21889]

are they suppose to turn black

[RobinsRandom]

I have Three peeper plants in my Garden right now.. that are simply from the TOPS of bell peppers that I got from the store. I cut the tops off, and seed the peppers, than went out side and put them in the ground.... NOW mind you I did not really expect any thing to grow... but I now have THREE pepper plants about 6 inches tall.

[Paulina0618]

@Ogizzie I'll have to disagree with you. I have successfully saved seeds from green bell peppers and have had nearly 100% germination rates. I've germinated them by soaking the seeds in water for a few hours or overnight and placing in a paper towel and I've had nearly 100% germination rates. I've even germinated them pretty much right out of the pepper, soaking, and putting in a paper towel and they have germinated that way for me as well. I'm not sure if this works with Hungarian though..

[bjusticeforever]

@Ogizzie Actually, I bought the pepper seeds (they were labeled SWEET peppers) as a mixed variety. When they began producing, I realized they were Bell Peppers, and they produced yellow, white, orange and red peppers (no purple ones which I was sad about.) I have some good news, however. A few days ago, the seeds a put in wet paper towels FINALLY sprouted! I'm really happy about this because I'll be able to continue to produce these for my wife and friends! Thanks for the info!

[Ogizzie]

@bjusticeforever [Continued] And even if I did get the hybrid seeds to germinate they either didn't produce peppers or was a different species than the pepper you saved the seed from. If you're going to save seeds from a pepper from the garden, make sure it's vine ripened, and make sure it's a heirloom pepper, not a hybrid. Sorry for the long reply, I'm very passionate about this lol. I hope I helped. Any more questions feel free to send me a message. Thank you.