At the end of last summer, the chilli plants were just abandoned and left standing where they were planted. Because we aren't big chilli users, the plants still had quite a chillies left hanging on them and there they stayed till recently.
In the past few weeks I've been clearing up and preparing that bed for spring and noticed that the chilli plants were particulalry interesting. Hanging off the chilli plants that had long thinnish chillis (cayenne??) were old fruits that had stayed there all winter in the cold and frosty conditions and all colour had gone from them as had all signs of flesh. I had a bit of a chuckle because the skins looked a bit like condoms. Inside them were lots of seeds. The little birds eye chillies too had lots of seeds (I think I used about 3 of them in the time they were growing - what a waste of grwoing space!).
Anyone like to take a guess and say what they think the chances of these seeds being viable? The look OK and are in good condition visually. I intend to take a punt on growing them when the weather finally warms up enough, but don't have any idea at all if they will grow or not.