1. Most grocery store produce are hybrids and lots of folks don't like to fool with them, because they probably will not be true to type. You can get some interesting products. but I would not recommend sending them to someone else without asking first.
2. Seeds from mature peppers (red or orange) will be viable. Green peppers are immature peppers and may or may not be viable depending on how close they were to being ripe when picked.

is there anything I can buy at the grocery, eat, and send the seeds on to Bakemom?

Sorry but I have to agree with farmerdilla. Most, not all, but most grocery varieties are hybrids bred for market. Many will be sterile and those that aren't won't breed true. Sometimes you will find tomatoes or melons marked "heirloom" and they will reproduce well but you won't know what variety they are so won't have that info to pass on.

Bottom line, if bakemom is interested in grocery store seeds (which I doubt) and approves them as a trade up front then go for it. But it wouldn't be fair to trade them without asking first.

As an alternative, many hardware stores and nurseries have year end seed packets sales - cheap - those seeds are good for trading if you can find the varieties the trader is looking for.

Good luck.

Dave

Oh, okay, then I won't try it, but I certainly appreciate the responses and the thoughful answers on "why".

For the record, I wasn't trying to trade them off, I was going to just send them to Bakemom. She has a newbie program where she sends out seeds to newbies (new to GW or new to seeds or new to gardening) for SASBE. I assumed most of the participants wanted flowers, but not so. And, since it wouldn't be a good gift, one people would want, I won't try to help her out with vegetabes. LOL!

Lime

so you guys are saying the supermarket varieties are hybrids and won't breed true to type. Really? So how the heck do the producers propagate the plants? you really think they're making new plants from cuttings after overwintering in a greenhouse or are doing hand-pollination to start new plants of a specific hybrid? Would they really be able to produce that many peppers for mass commercial sale like that?

I would suspect they just do it the old fashioned way and just separate their different varieties in different fields to stop cross-pollination and start new plants from seed harvested from the fruits - how the heck else are you going to make the huge mass quantities needed for commercial sales? Remember, peppers do need to be pollinated, but they are self-fertile.

you guys sure about the hybrid thing?

Peanuttree,
They are correct. The farmers buy seeds from big seed dealers that sell them hybrid seed. Some crops like peppers have a majority of the varieties being hybrid. Other types of vegetables have a mix of hybrid and open pollinated varieties, and some are all open pollinated like beans.
Remy

I do not understand the compelling feeling to send someone some seed. I have saved and planted seed from exceptional varieties of various veggies that I have bought at the store, with good success, However, I would not pass them off to someone else. If I did, I would certainly tell the source of them and how I went about saving them and let the recipient make the choice as to whether or not they wanted to fool with planting them.

Just a thought, now is probably not the best time, but in the late season especially, seed can be bought very cheaply at places lake Dollar stores etc. for prices like five or ten cents per pack. Sometimes, some of the big box stores may put the seed on their racks on for half price or less. Those seed would be fine for sharing if anyone wanted the varieties you happened to have. Soon after the first of the year, you might be able to find bulk seed at a very good price at a feed and seed store if you have one in your area.
Just my .02
Bill P.

An interesting post, gonefishin'. And one which I personally agree with.

*If* I ever went to the time and trouble to have a vegetable garden, then no amount of money would stop me from getting the *EXACT* seeds I wanted to grow to eat. (And I am pretty sure they wouldn't be on the 10c rack). However, here is the link to the "welcome newbies" seed offer (no charge, just SASBE) and 90% of the responders are asking for veggies. I don't understand it, either, especially when they could have flowers instead! ROTFL!

I'm only halfway kidding you, but, I would rather read the seed catalogs and choose the green bean or bell pepper or whatever that sounds like the best one, not take pot luck on maybe getting something good. Too much work is involved in growing food to leave the variety up to chance, but read the responses....In any case, I have abandoned my clever idea of using the bell peppers and saving the seed. :)

Here is a link that might be useful: Bakemom's Newbie Seed Offer

Make no mistake about the quality of the seed on the racks or in stores at a discounted rate. They are usually just as good as the more expensive ones, in fact, most of the time they are the more expensive ones, just at a discount. All that I have bought that way have been viable. You read postings on here that seed were mixed up or mis labeled even from the best of places upon occasion, some have been sub standard etc. Several times I have received seed that I ordered that had a note on them saying sub standard germination, seed count doubled or something like that.

I have read where someone said that peppers were the "harlots" of the garden, crossing readily with any others in the area. That is the main reason that I buy new pepper seed each year. However, I just have the feeling that seed from, say a beautiful red, orange or yellow pepper from the store shelf, might have been more likely to have been geographically isolated from other varieties simply from being in a big field surrounded on all sides by others of the same, but you can not be sure of that.

In my little garden, I would not be afraid to try a few plants of a variety that I found especially good or attractive, it is not like I was intending to save the seed and trade or sell them. If they turned out good, that is great, if not, oh well, not much lost.

The seed catalogs do have some gorgeous pictures that make the veggies look so appetizing and I understand the interest, intrigue and anticipation of growing something that we really like to eat, or just for fun.

Hopefully, you will find the time and take the trouble to make a little garden. There are many rewards to gardening, beyond just the produce that it grows.

Thanks for the link, I will check it out.
Bill P.

Really, Remy? That seems so weird to me. So that means somewhere they have huge greenhouses where people are repeatedly hand-pollinated tons and tons of pepper plants. I thought that would be unlikely since in business labor costs are often the highest costs. Not to mention you'd have to build the greenhouse or netting or something to exclude pollinators. Or maybe they're just really out in the middle of nowhere far from bees?

I'd have thought that for something that is self-fertile and doesn't cross-pollinate over long distances, doing all that hand-pollination would be MORE costly than just huge, separated, one-variety fields with bee boxes for each field.

Now you've got me all curious. Do you know someone who's in the vegetable agriculture business? I just might try growing some peppers from store bought peppers to make sure for myself...

Peanuttree: Hybrid pepper seed production IS very labor intensive. Much of it is done in China. Commercial growers will pay the extra cost for hybrid seed because it gives them plants that yield significantly more peppers per acre. Some varieties also have disease resistance or may mature most peppers in a short time frame allowing for mechanical harvest. The seed cost is only a small part of the growing picture. Plants breed with the unique traits needed by a grower may make it possible for him/her to have a profitable business.

For my garden the goal and mindset is much different than for a commercial grower. I just plant a few more seeds if I want more peppers. I don't want all the peppers to ripen at once. I sometimes enjoy saving seeds from favorite plants. So open pollinated varieties often work well for me. Experiments with seed from uncertain sources are fun, not a gamble on whether a business prospers or fails.

University of Georgia info:
"Bell pepper growers now have a choice between hybrid types and open-pollinated or nonhybrid types. Production techniques required to produce hybrid pepper seed are labor intensive, require hand emasculation of the female flower and hand cross-pollination from the other parent. The seed-producing female plant must also be protected from insects which might cause unwanted cross-pollination. These production techniques make hybrid pepper seed very expensive (often 10 to 20 times the cost of open-pollinated seed). Seed production for open-pollinated pepper only requires that seedsmen plant a true variety that is properly isolated from other peppers."

Emasculation is used in producing hybrids of many plant species. I can not imagine spending hours removing tiny stamens from small flowers before the pollen is viable. And then pollinating with parts from other selected plants.Those flower parts are way to small for me to fuss with. I am amazed that commercial quantities of hybrid seed can be produced and gladly pay the price for the hybrid seeds I choose to grow.

Here is a link that might be useful: U of Georgia info: page down to transplant propagation

Thank you naturegirl 2007 - that actually makes sense now. Though you didn't have to give that much detail, all you had to really say was "China." It makes sense since labor is so much cheaper there.

Does it also work the same way with tomato seeds?

Peanuttree,
Yes, it works the same with tomatoes. Often catalogs that offer open pollinated and hybrid vegetables will have a same price(or close) per pack for either, but a much smaller seed count for the hybrid vegetables.
Another interesting fact is the really popular hybrid tomato varieties like Big Boy can have parents that are often kept secret so other companies cannot duplicate or make something similar to them.
Remy

I've found a pretty high percentage of crossing in tomato seed which people send me in swaps. Apparently many folk don't give adequate isolation space. I've read that peppers cross more readily yet. But I haven't grown out that many in order to note the crossing.

What I've done with peppers is simply to give them AS MUCH ISOLATION space as I can. Rarely do I grow two varieties any closer than 100'. The only exception would be that I wouldn't mind planting a regular chile, like Cayenne, next to an Habanero, since they are from different families and are not supposed to cross. When I've been pressed for space, I've sometimes grown a pepper variety in a flower bed, say, out by the mail box. So far, I haven't had any crossing at all. I've been saving seed, and replanting from one variety, now, for over 6 years.

This year someone sent me seed to Red Savina, an Habanero variety. It had been grown in close proximity to other kinds of Habaneros. I had red, orange, yellow, large blockly and small pointy fruit on various plants. That seed was really mixed up! But, oh so pretty! I decided I'm going to grow this mix every year. They all taste the same to me.

Two years in a row I once saved seed from an apparently hybrid Cayenne pepper. The F2 generation was very marginal. Some plants produced tiny little peppers, hardly worth picking.

George
Tahlequah, OK

George,

I haven't done much gardening in my life (like I say in my profile) - but I always figured if/when I start saving seeds I would control pollination myself by covering some flower buds with plastic bags (poked with holes for ventilation) to exclude bees/pollinators, then when the flower opened take the bag off and hand-pollinate myself, and then put the bag back on and leave there until blossom drops and fruit starts forming. Then mark off these fruits so you know they are your "breeders" and collect seed from them when they're ready.

You could use sandwich bags and rubber bands or tape. I've even thought about marketing these "flower condoms"

Like I said, I have yet to do this myself, but I figure it'll be worth it because A) it won't take up too much time, B) each fruit produces numerous seeds, so it would be a productive method C) I don't have a lot of land, and though I'd like to, I don't want to do the separate-by-100-feet thing - 'cause what would I do with the land in between? I could work out some crazy crop rotation system where I grow plants of two families in one section, but I just want to keep a simple crop rotation going and D)I hate buying seeds - if I order them online, I have to pay for the seeds AND shipping, and if I buy them from garden stores, that involves driving, which involves both time and gas money, plus I have to make sure I have reliable sources for the varieties I want (what if one of my suppliers runs out or goes out of business?) whereas with seed saving, once I have a variety, I have it in perpetuity

try my method and tell me how it goes

Unless you are simply extremely passionate about it, there's no need to save and control your entire seed line. You can find trades with others, and honestly there's more that few people out there (especially tomato seed savers) who save more seed than they could hope to try to give away for a SASE.

There's no need to make things more complicated than you're willing to deal with in your garden, imo. It leads to projects being abandoned or ignored out of fatigue.

With enough online networking or local gardening friends, you can fill most small/medium sized gardens out of gifts and trade offers.

Not that I'm trying to turn you away from seed saving, it's just that control over selected items for seed saving in your small garden often makes more sense when you have access to others to share resources or just get a plain ol' handout of seeds.

Hey Peanuttree,

Your method has been used and successfully. I just find it easier to limit the number of varieties I grow and isolate them. You would probably do better with some sort of mesh rather than baggies. Even in NJ those baggies would probably overheat and kill the blooms, if not the leaves.

Isolation distances can be somewhat diminished by the use of tall & flowering barrier crops. I don't have an elaborate system.

This year I grew three kinds of peppers, the most I've done in years. It isn't that hard for me to tuck a pepper into the corner of a garden and, I have three vegetable plots. You and others are correct, however, in stating that I have a special situation here. Not everyone has the space.

What I haven't had great luck with are those "hand out seeds" mentioned by nc-crn. I still get them, from time to time, as sometimes that's the only way to get a certain variety, or, sometimes I'd rather mess with selecting and culling more than paying as much from a seed company. Still, if they give you pepper seeds, you will certainly get peppers from them. As in the case with my habanero mix, they are likely to be good, even if they aren't what one was expecting.

George

"What I haven't had great luck with are those "hand out seeds" mentioned by nc-crn."

Yes, me too.

Sometimes someone just being nice isn't enough, especially if you're devoting space and time to something. Mistakes happen, but even the freebies should be looked at as something you need to trust your seed collector source if the crop is very important to you.

I grow in raised beds at apartments I've lived in for the past many years. Space and selection has always been important to me and I've turned away more interesting seed than I've taken from others because I knew nothing of how they grew/collected their seed.

I wish I had more room to play/experiment with.

This fall I came across a pepper at my local supermarket called "Ancient Sweets." They were large, very long and there was 2 to a bag @ 2.50. They were deep red and very sweet. I asked the produce guy about them and he said they'd recieved them by mistake. They were grown in Mexico. I thought it might be worth while to save the seeds, give em a try next year. If they're OP they were probably grown in isolation.

Peppers from supermarkets will work fine.I divide the seed bearing part into four pcs. and burry them in the sides of potted plants some time in March.They germinate by end of May.Select the peppers which are changing colors to red or yellow.

Grocery store pepper seeds work just fine. I only have experience with fully ripened red peppers from Costco tho. We always get some pepper seedlings popping up in the "sheet compost" method we use, which is to just put kitchen waste on top of the ground daily. There are always quite a number of seedlings arising from this practice at the "correct" time in spring, and I feel these are also the toughest plants. Some go on to give nice big red peppers by seasons end. And the green peppers taste just like the store boughts, so I do not see why I should not grow them out!

Chaman and Plumfan,
The point was not whether you could get peppers to grow from grocery store peppers. Of course if the peppers are ripe enough the seeds will germinate. There is no way of knowing what the seedling peppers will look like though. The seedlings will vary and depending on the parents of the grocery store pepper, the seedlings could vary a lot. If you like growing them that is absolutely fine, lots of people do. You just can't give them out in seed exchanges.
Some people want to know exactly what they are growing. They do not have the space to grow what may be red bell peppers but then again may be not. Or like I can Hungarian hot peppers. I need a bunch of plants all growing Hungarians. I do not want to spend the time to grow a bunch of plants to find out they are all different types of peppers.
Remy

You are so right Remy. I would never consider digging the seeds out of a grocery store pepper for a trade!

I guess I forgot the context of the query when I typed my comments. We have had nice pepper plants from such, but NIX the trading value!!!

Remmy, my posting was to answer the question limequella asked if seeds from bell peppers from super market are viable? My answer was yes from my experience.I did not mean to advise whether they should be used for trade or exchange.Most of the tropical veggie. seeds can be germinated if they are at nearly ripening age.This will be useful info. for the gardeners who can not find seeds from else where.

Today at the grocery store I bought some raw peanuts from the vegetable isle to plant in my garden. Grocery store potato eyes get planted and grow fine. Same with yams and other types of potatoes. Next time you buy a pineapple, twist off the top, pull a few of the bottom leaves off to reveal the root nubs and then push it about an inch or so into the soil. (Note: pineapple takes two years to produce fruit, if you live where it freezes, then you may want to push it into transportable soil such as a big flowerpot.) Papaya seeds grow fine and run true to type. I also go to the health food store and buy bulk spice seeds to plant (celery, coriander, etc.) and for sprouting seeds. Cut the root section off of an onion and that will resprout and grow with a bit of encouragement. The other option is to throw everything out on the compost pile and then relocate the volunteer sprouts when they pop up.

If you were sending the seeds to someone else, then it would be polite to send them the seed source as well. If I get a really tasty vegetable from the market and it has seeds, I'll save and plant them. If it doesn't work, it didn't cost me anything other than a bit of time. If it does work, then I have more tasty vegetables. And if I was sharing the seeds, I'd tell the person where the seeds came from.

Chaman,
Sorry, it is just a bit of confusion this far down in the conversation. : )
Lime wanted to send the seeds for Bakemom's newbie hand outs not save for herself. At the beginning of this thread she was told they would germinate, but the more important aspect of the saved seeds was they would not be true to type since most grocery store peppers are hybrids.
You are correct her original question was if they would germinate. I didn't mean to sound like saving seeds wasn't a thing that couldn't be done. I've saved seeds myself from an exceptionally wonderful long sweet red pepper from a delivery from a local farmer(an experimental variety, he didn't say which seed company, but I'm assuming Stokes because they are right here.) to the grocery store in hopes I will get some seedlings that resemble the original pepper.
Remy