Are you thinking of the dried chilis? I've grown seed from several of them. De Arbol as I remember took a very long time to germinate. I thougt it was dead seed but didn't get the trays dumped out and then....there they were. Waited several weeks and then several sprouted within a few days of each other. Some other varieties germinated in a week, others took long, and some never grew. They were probably dried at hotter temps, I'm guessing. I'd try soaking the seed from dried peppers 12 hours in lukewarm water before planting. Maybe that would give them a quicker start than mine which were not soaked. I'd sow them soon. You should be able to find enough inside light to keep them alive til plant out time. And the plants can use the extra growing time....seems to take forever for some chilis to ripen. Good luck. It's fun to experiment with non-seed packet seeds. Just be sure you have a backup plan if yours do not grow. You wouldn't want to go all summer without any pepper plants!

Smoke until dry, which takes about all day, with the temps in the 150-180 range. Store and grind as needed. We tried all kinds of variations, including soaking small chunks of mesquite and adding it to hardwood charcoal fires, but a plain mesquite fire with air cut until it's smoking lightly is the easiest and has the best results. The sandias came out "sweeter" than the ripe serranos we did at the same time.

My personal experience w/ Thai Hots (if left in a covered container in a cupboard) is that they will last for a few years losing some of their heat toward the end. If you vacuum seal the flakes/powder they will last for many more years. Cherry peppers however, are much fleshier and considered a canning pepper as opposed to a drying pepper. I have not had any experience drying them, therefore I can't comment. If you used a dehydrator as a means of drying them rather than the standard "air drying" method, I believe your success for long term storage would be greatly improved. A percentage of thick fleshed peppers that have been hung and air dried have a tendency to generate bad micro-organisms and may rot or get moldy/spoiled before they fully dry, even if good air circulation is provided. In any case, vacuum sealing if definately the way to go when looking at super-long term storage. Just my 2¢.

Oh, the flavor will be fine. Dried chiles are good for a long tim, but all chiles, like all grain, can have "guests". I coul tell you a funny and slightly disturbing story about how I know that, but then I might scare you from using them. :) I keep my dried chiles in the freezer. Guajillos can have a little heat to them. I've used them so often that I can sort of tell by the smell how hot they will be. They do vary from one batch to the next. I usually rinse them since the place I get mine packs in the fields, Then I wipe them dry and toast them in a dry pan (less than a minutes) just until they soften. DO NOT SCORCH THEM or they will be bitter. Then I put them in a bowl and pour boiling water over them. Once they are soft, I split and dessed/devein (just depends on what I'm making and how hot I want it.) I have a VitaMix, which can puree darn near anything into a smooth sauce, so one sauce I keep in the freezer uses 5 or 6 guajillos, about a pound of roasted tomatoes, an onion, two heads of roasted garlic, cumin, coriander, thyme, morjarom, and chicken broth. I whir it into a sauce, then freeze it for later. It's good with chicken or pork espeically.