Go for it. The people who grew the peppers did the same thing. Scotch bonnet are suppose to have more and better flavor than the habanero. Well that is what I read yesterday.

http://www.cardi.org/publications/proceedings/hotpepper/toc.html

You will enjoy this reading. It has many parts on the Scotch Bonnets. I found the entire writeup facinating. It is however, a few years old. I am sure much progress has been made in what he talks about.

By the way, I took seeds from my store purchased Scotch Bonnets. I have been taking pepper seeds from peppers for over 25 years. That is the method pepper collectors use in foreign countries. They buy peppers and take some seeds. What could be more simple.

I am amazed by people who do not save seeds from peppers or tomatoes etc. the easy ones.

I see it on GW all the time. someone asks were to get these pepper seeds or tomato seeds. they say something like.

I had these great peppers and tomatoes and describes them. I want to grow some of my own. Does anyone know what they are.

Question back did you save seeds.
Answer NO.

Kills me. They had the exact pepper and tomato they like to eat in their hand. It was full of seeds and they did not save them. Instead they want to go search for the "correct same" seeds.

By the way the seeds from green peppers will germinate. They do not have to be red ripe. Now of course seeds from red ripe are better.

Welcome to the facinating world of saving pepper seeds.

Here is a link that might be useful: Great reading

I have 70 habeneros, 50 being Caribbean Reds. I have so many peppers I can't give them away fast enough and the ones I gut in one session produce more seeds than I probably will ever need in my lifetime.

I've heard, however, that saving these seeds might not be a good idea because of cross pollination problems. I also grow golden habs and don't necessarily want to end up with a hybrid between the reds and goldens. I do have a planter that's all reds and pretty isolated from the rest so maybe those seeds will be OK.

My question is: Should I worry about this? And, how do I go about saving these seeds? I have a food dehydrator to dry out these habs but I doubt I need to leave seeds in there for 20 hours.

It would be fantastic if I could save these seeds and get a bunch of seedling for next year. This Spring a nursery around me had fantastic, healthy Carribean Red seedlings and I ended up buying tray after tray after tray. I'm not sure that they'll have these next year and since it was so much fun growing this crop and giving these away to so many appreciative people, I'd love to become self sufficient and use these seeds -- that is if I don't end up with some weird hybrid.

Does vinegar affect germination? I was eating some store bought jalapeños that were packed in vinegar and one of them tasted amazing, so I tried taking the seeds out of it and germinating them, but after a week and of a half of the plastic bag and paper towels method, none of the 16 seeds inside have sprouted.

Early this year (Mar-Apr) I bought a few orange habaneros from the local market for about 35 cents. I took them home and cut them open to scoop out the seeds. I made nuclear chili with the flesh, but I put the seeds on some wax paper and let them dry for a couple days. Then i put them in a used prescription bottle with a silica gel cap to pull out the rest of the moisture.

I planted the seeds, probably 100 or so, in a plastic pot on my deck. I put a kitchen garbage bag over the pot and cut a few slits in it to release the moisture, while keeping in the heat. The seeds sprouted about 10 days later and I let them grow.

I thinned to the strongest 4 plants and they shot up. I had to transplant 2 of them to their own pots and it almost killed them. Or so I thought! They are now over 3 feet tall and loaded with 1.5 to 2" fruits and the flowers keep setting.

So, in answer to your question about using seeds from peppers your Mom's caretaker brings over, I say stick 'em in the dirt and let the fun begin.

btw Mark ( mea2214 ) - if you have some of those Carribean Red seeds you'd like to share, please send me a note - I just LUUUUUUUUUV hot peppers!! Thx!!!

mea2214-

If you obtain the seeds from the current peppers and lay them aside to air dry they should be fine to grow. I saved my seeds and placed them into a normal white envelope to save through the winter. From what I have read if you dehydrate the seeds the high temperatures will kill the seeds.

I don't know as much about cross pollination, but as long as you donÂt place the two plants close together they should be fine.

One question I just thought of is how long will seeds keep before going bad? Could you keep good seeds in an envelope for a couple of growing seasons?

I've just recently germinated a few seeds from Dried peppers that I bought at the supermarket. Don Enrique brand. The ones I've sprouted are Anaheims, but I've seen dried Habs, Pasillos (sp?), and Anchos from the same company. I assume they don't dry them too hot for the seeds.

I tried seeds from "fresh" peppers once, but they didn't work.

I buy big packs of some long dried red peppers from Asia, and they are quite hot, and in their dried state look to average 6" long and 1/2" wide.

There are hundreds of seeds in each pack, all dried naturally I figured. So this year I planted 15 and they all germinated and have grown strongly.

I have no idea what variety they are but I do know they are from Asia. Frankly, this has been the most rewarding thing so far this spring and I can't wait until the plants get big and start producing.

I named them Asian Red :-)

Hi, I'm not usually on this forum, however I saw a link to "hot peppers" on the top of the tractor forum.

I like hot peppers, plus this was a subject, which my sister was talking about last night.

You used to be able to grow most anything from the seeds of the mature fruit or vegetable, but maybe not any longer. She had been reading a book, which said "that the seeds, now days, are genetically programed not to reproduce. And, that the seed companies were, for the most part, owned by chemical companies". Monsanto for one. ??? Forget the name of the book.

Here is a link that might be useful: Terminator seeds

What will happen if you try to save and propagate propriatary seeds is the seed police will show up and arrest you, the seed police are related to the mattress tag police who are all related to Yahootie... You know him, he's the little guy that lives in your fridge and turns on the lite when you open the door.

In all seriousness do save your seeds and try the ones you get with dried peppers I've found a lot of the peppers that I get from the Mexican markets up here are air dried and sprout just fine.

I save seeds by air drying them on paper plates. I like to use the closet our water heater is in as it's warmish but not hot and there's good air flow in there due to the venting so I never get mold on the seeds. I'll leave them in there for several weeks so they get good and dry.

To store them go and find some paper coin envelopes, they are about 2"x 4" and put your seeds in them, plastic will work but if there's any moisture in the seeds you'll get mold and it will kill them, paper mo betta bro. :)

What works great is a good size Mason jar with the wire top and rubber seal, use silaca gel in the bottom and put your clearly marked and dated envelopes in the jar and have Yahootie store them in the bottom back of the fridge right next to that freeze dried something in the tupperware where it's cool and dark. If you can't get the silica gel pour 2 inches of fresh rice in the bottom as it will also absorb the moisture.

I've kept seeds this way for years, I had some pepper seeds that were at least ten years old kept this way and had better than 60% germination from them.