Growing pepper from peppercorns??

Sounds interesting. It never occurred to me to try to grow a peppercorn. I have no idea how they are prepared. I suppose they are just dried and not heated or anything. I think they are actually a dried fruit with seeds inside. Now I wish I had some in the house so I could crack one open and see what's inside.

Steve

Yeah, they are the dried whole fruit, each peppercorn has a single see

inside. i have just read something which indicated that the fruit i also fermented before drying so i guess the seeds are not viable however i still have a pot full of pepercorns on my windowsil, in hop of seenig a seedling soon..

-- blackorchid

I would remain hopeful too. Fermenting may not kill the seed if that's all they do to it. Let us know what happens.

Steve

Very interesting question. Yes, please let us know!

Much of the pepper imported into N. America has been treated to kill insects; sometime by heat and sometimes in other ways. I would be surprised to find that it germinated, but that is no reason not to try. Import practices may well vary elsewhere.

By the by, the only place where I have seen piper nigrum being propagated (S. India) was by layering, not by seed. The mother vines were growing at the base of "troughs" (4" dia x 3ft length bamboo culms split lengthwise and supported at a 45 deg angle). The bamboo was filled with a compose mixture an the vine directed up the bamboo. At each node, it was held in contact with the compost where it rooted. After the vine reached the top of the bamboo, the rooted sections were cut apart and transplanted.