Quick germinating peppers

[PLUMPUDDING]

As pepper seeds seem to take ages to germinate I had to tell you about some I took out of a lovely long pointed sweet pepper from the shop.

I cleaned them and dried them for a couple of days on the windowsill, planted them and they have germinated in less than a week in the propagator. The bought seeds sown three weeks ago have still to germinate so they have just another week to prove themselves before they get chucked out.

I did wonder whether the fresh ones would need to dry out more to ripen, but this wasn't necessary.

The seeds I saved from a lovely fleshy pepper from a market in Menorca last year have also germinated quite quickly too. It does make me wonder just how old the seed is in commercial packets, even though they are well before their stated expiry date.

[glallotments]

This reminds me of sowing primrose seeds.

I bought a packet of wild primrose seeds and none came up - I have had the same problem with the cultivatied varieties in the past.

Howver, I gathered seed from the native primroses growing in my garden and hundreds germinated - again I have had the same success when gthering from cultivated varieties but obviously the colours are variable.

The small cyclamen are the same - bought seeds - no germination - slef sown and they are spreading everywhere.

Some seeds just seem to need to be fresh!

[Primrose]

I planted some peppers seeds a fortnight ago and there's not a sign of them yet so I think you may be right about the freshness of seeds.
I too have noticed this with primrose seeds in my garden. They often flowerm seed and produce tiny little plants within weeks.
I've also noticed that if I strip down my tomato plants in autumn, leave a few manky fruits on the ground, if the soil is still warm, seeds will start germinating almost immediately.

Silly question: I sowed some Hungarian Wax chillies from 2 year old seed on the same day as I sowed my peppers. No sign of them either.
But I've got some whole HW chillis in the freezer. Would the frozen seed from them be viable for sowing? I know some seeds benefit from a cold period but am unsure how cold, and whether "frozen" is too cold. I believe some of our national Heritage Seed collection is held in cold store, but again, don't know at what temperature.

[Colin_M]

Hi PlumPudding, that sounds like a good result. Guess the only thing now is how the resulting plants will turn out (eg. if they were from F1 hybrids, the next generation could be somewhat different).

Hi Primrose, it would certainly be worth a try with some seeds from frozen chillies - nothing to lose really (though I wouldn't have thought chillies would be triggered by frost in the wild very often).

In the meantime, you may already know this but warmth makes a big difference to getting some chillie seeds to germinate. I often put mine in the airing cupborard and have just had the first batch of this year's Trinidad Seasoning Peppers come up after 2 weeks in there.

If you would like to try some of these (they aren't hot but they have a great aromoa & flavour), drop me a PM with your details.

[PLUMPUDDING]

I've tried growing peppers from seed from frozen fruits but have never got any to germinate. For cold store the moisture content of the seed will have been reduced and controlled whereas from frozen fruits perhaps there is too much moisture for them to survive.

[Primrose]

Thanks Plumpudding - that's one experiment I won't bother with then.

However I have succeeded in growing several chillis over the winter from one of last summer's plants which I bought indoors. It was starting to look a bit straggly, so I pruned it hard back last week and already new shoots are starting to sprout so I'm hopeful of being able to repot it in fresh compost in spring and reap another crop from it.

[PLUMPUDDING]

The chillies over winter well in a conservatory. I've just pruned back my Lemon Drop chilli from Real Seeds and it is sprouting nicely. The only thing you have to watch is for aphids on the new shoots they seem to find them a delicacy.

I put a few of these peppers in the freezer too, so don't think I'll need any more for a year or two. They are so hot I can only manage a quarter of one in my cooking. They are nice and lemony though.

[Colin_M]

The chillies over winter well in a conservatory. ...The only thing you have to watch is for aphids on the new shoots

Thanks PP, I was beginning to worry that no one else was having this problem. It's a nuisance isn't it?

A few people have commented that because the temperature in a conservatory doesn't really drop that low (compared to an unheated greenhouse etc) the aphids overwinter quite happily there, then are pretty hungry by the time Spring (and our new young chilli seedlings) arrives

[Nature's Babe]

Though freezing might not work, I have grown some from dried chillies that I found on the greenhouse floor.
Also grew some gogi berry plants from dried gogi berries, just rehydrated them and planted the seeds.

[ken]

Hi all. This year I planted my tomato and pepper seeds all on the same day (4 March), and put them in the airing cupboard. The tomatoes all showed signs of germinating within about five days and the peppers all within about nine. Because I couldn't get Gypsy seed from Simpsons ths year I'm doing a trial with three different peppers from two suppliers (Simpsons and Real Seed Co) and, interestingly, they all germinated on the same day. They had been in the fridge since they were delivered.