pepper seed question

[belly]

OK, I'm sure this has been asked in the past, but I spent my obligatory ten minutes in the archives, then said the hell with it. Can I expect any success in trying to start pepper seeds from the dried peppers from the market? It seems the market near me has suddenly begun carrying peppers that I haven't seen at the nursery, not to mention, I can buy and eat the peppers in a $2 package, saving the seeds, but the seeds cost $3 at the nursery for about a quarter as many. Have these dried peps been irradiated or maybe subjected to anything else that my kill the seeds would you think? any opinion or ideas appreciated... thanks a lot!

[zxcvbob]

It doesn't hurt to try. I've grown pepper plants from dried peppers before and got some unusual varieties that way that are seldom available as seeds. Other times, I got 0% germination. I think it depends on how much (if any) heat is used used to dry the peppers.

Bob

[belly]

On Thu, 25 Aug 2005 16:32:33 -0500 in , zxcvbob graced the world with this thought:

Yeah, I figured I'd ask first to see if anyone just said "Forget it, no way." In the end, I'll probably take a run at it, not like it costs me anything, I already ate the peppers, and it's not like I don't have bags of soil around...

[RR]

A couple of years ago we dried quite a few of our own home grown hot peppers in a dehydrator. They were not de-seeded, simply sliced and placed on the trays. After they were dry there was a large quantity of seeds that had fallen through the drying trays and ended up in the bottom of the dehydrator. We collected them, stored them in pill vials and tried starting them the following spring. I'm sure we got at least 99.9% germination and, although the resultant peppers did not always look like the ones we dried, they sure were hot. Give it a try. You really have nothing to lose.

Ross. Southern Ontario, Canada. New AgCanada Zone 5b

43º17'15" North 80º13'32" West To email, remove the obvious from my address.

[belly]

On Sat, 27 Aug 2005 00:34:24 -0400 in , RR graced the world with this thought:

Wow... pretty good germination rate! Very encouraging!

[PatK]

I've grown a dozen pepper plants this year from a red bell pepper that I bought at the store. So far, only two plants have had peppers, but I think that's more due to the fact that it's been so hot this summer. But the pepper plants themselves are a good three feet tall and have had lots of flowers.

Pat