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Harvesting seeds
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Posted by criticalmass Philadelphia, (My Page) on Tue, Nov 10, 09 at 17:09
| Let me make perfectly clear, I don't have a green thumb, and even if I did, it would probably be stuck up my... well, if you're fans of hot peppers, you know what I'm talking about.
Anyway, I think it's a shame that I come across all these hot peppers (either purchased or given to me) and then they get eaten and that's that. How simple/difficult is it to cultivate my own plants from existing seeds?
I've read several articles on websites about how to plant and when to plant, but they all mention "purchasing seeds". Do I need to do anything differently if I'm using my own seeds? How many plants can I really expect to get from one pepper? Am I going to have better results with one pepper over another?
Thanks in advance!
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Follow-Up Postings:
RE: Harvesting seeds
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| Ah criticalmass, An easy question that’s kind of hard to answer. Simple answer: Yes, it’s easy to save and grow from "good" seed. The hard part: 1) Are the peppers purchased or gifted fully ripe? You’ll get a much higher germination rate from rime seed. 2) You don’t care if your seed grows true to its parent? A number of pepper varieties will naturally cross pollinate. If your seed is from an unknown environment or source, you’ll never be 100% assured the "offspring" crop will produce like the parent seed. F1 (first gen seed) will usually grow true. F2 (second gen) is a crap shoot between both parents and their previous history. It extends to theoretical mathematics if the source is from a seed with multiple cross histories. If you answered "no" to questions 1 and 2 above, then you’re best to buy from a reputable source. If all you want to do is try to grow some peppers from harvested seed regardless of its purity or outcome, then it’s pretty easy. Take your ripe(?) pods, cut them in half and scrape the seeds onto a paper towel. Place them in a warm airy location for one to two weeks to dry. Once dried, place them in a labeled envelope until your ready to germinate them. Bill ps. I eat a lot of peppers (sometimes to ill effect) but never once have I had the urge to put my thumb there??? |
RE: Harvesting seeds
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| How simple/difficult is it to cultivate my own plants from existing seeds? Easy to grow, but they won't be the same as the pepper you got them from. Commercial pepper seed producers isolate their seed fields by at least 1/4 mile to minimize cross pollination. Commercial producers of peppers for eating can have the peppers growing right next to each other and you will get unpredictable offspring. |
RE: Harvesting seeds
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| So what you're both telling me is that it should be fairly easy for an idiot like me to grow pepper plants, but what I get will be unpredictable. I can live with that! After all, we're not talking about fancy dog or horse breeding here. I don't plan to sell the peppers, so as long as I have peppers that are hot and plentiful, I think I'd be happy! Maybe I can even create a cross-breed that is worth having! After all, SOMEONE decided to made a Black Lab and a Poodle at some point, and now a "Laberdoodle" fetches hundreds if not thousands of dollars! Now if you told me the result would be poisonous, then we have a problem... |
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