Planting seeds from fresh peppers

[Deuteros]

Will a pepper seed just recently taken from a fresh pepper germinate or must something, such as drying, be done to it first?

[Pat Kiewicz]

A fresh, green pepper, no.

A fresh ripe pepper is a different story.

[enigma]

Deuteros wrote in news: [e-mail] ps.com:

if the pepper was ripe when it was picked, it will germinate if you toss it in a bit of dirt & keep it warm (above 60F). my

7 year old does it all the time. i have several pepper plants under lights right now & one is starting to bud. lee

[Deuteros]

enigma wrote in news:Xns9A2B4F7054021enigmaempirenet@199.125.85.9:

Yes, the pepper was red and ripe. I just wasn't sure if the seeds needed to dry first before planting. I guess there's only one way to find out.

[enigma]

Deuteros wrote in news:fmvmd4$6c6$ [e-mail]:

no, they don't. they should grow just fine right out of the pepper, but you may get something different than the fruit they came from. most greenhouse peppers are F1 hybrids, so they won't come true from seed. that's not saying you won't get good peppers. just don't expect them to be like the one you bought. if you start several plants you might get a few different types of peppers too. lee

[JoeSpareBedroom]

That's plant humor, not genetics at work.

[Zootal]

Even if they weren't hybrid, there is no guarantee they will be anything like the parent. I once saved an acorn squash and planted the seeds the next year. The seeds grew very well, and the plants were quite robust. I got weird yellow squash, funny ribbed zuchinni, scallop squash that looked like flying saucers, some odd ribbed pumpkins and a few squash that I wasn't sure how to categorize. All tasted excellent. All grew on long vines. And all came from the seeds that came out of one ordinary looking acorn squash. Now I grow these just to see what kind of weird squash I can get to grow. Who knows, maybe I'll invent the Next Big Thing in summer squash varieties? :-)