Saving jalapeno seeds
Sep 7, 2009 jalapeno, peppers, seed saving
I am attempting to grow the best pepper plants I can indoors (grow box) so I started with jalapeno peppers. They grow relatively small 2-3 feet and require 2-3 gallon container for growing. While this is fine for an outdoor garden, though indoors I can only sacrifice 1 gallon container. This summer I grew several jalapeno plants which spent half of their life in the grow box and spent our warm summer outdoors. All of the plants produced but there was definitely a clear winner which had incredible early yields even with its small growing quarters.
I used several immature peppers (green) for salsa this year but allowed several peppers to mature (red) which I will be saving the seeds for planting this winter and next summer for future plants. By hand selecting the best parent plants should be good old natural selection at work.
The process to collect pepper seeds is pretty simple though I must first provide this warning:
WARNING: Peppers are hot, especially the veins. When handling peppers use caution and wash your hands well with dish soap. Under no conditions do not rub your eyes or pick rub your nose before washing your hands or you will be regretting it for a couple hours. Using gloves is also recommended.
That being said slice the peppers lengthwise with a sharp knife.
Use a fork or spoon to gently dislodge the seeds into a small bowl.
If you are lucky enough to have hot sunny weather still (week of rain here) lay they out in the sun for a couple days and store them in a cool dry place until you are ready to plant them. If you are sun challenged like me set them on a windowsill for a few days.
As I have said before saving you own seeds is very easy and free and as an added bonus you can personally pick the best plant to be the donors of seeds for your future plantings. In my case I also have the benefit of a plants that is genetically grown to following my sporadic watering and care patterns.
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September 8th, 2009 at 5:52 AM
I did not get round to growing any of my own chillies this year. YOu have encouraged me to save some seeds this year, so hopefully I will have some of my own chillies to enjoy next year. Thanks.
September 8th, 2009 at 7:59 AM
mangocheeks, just make sure you are saving them from mature ones
I made that mistake last year when I attempted to save some seeds from a jalapeno pepper (green) I bought at the grocery store.
September 16th, 2009 at 8:06 AM
Important to note is that pepper plants can be inter-pollinated. The seeds that you pull from your Jalapeno my be the product of the jalapeno and a non hot pepper. the resulting plants from these seeds will not be identical to the parent plant.to prevent cross-pollination, you need to prevent bees and other bugs from reaching the flowers. One way to do this is to put a net over the bud before it opens. I read a great guide on doing this and I'll try to post it later.
September 16th, 2009 at 4:58 PM
Jason, that is a good point. You can also speed up the proces and beat the bees by giving your peppers (or even tomatoes) a little flick to help to ensure self polination. In my case jalapeno peppers are the only ones I grew so I let the bees help me out.
October 29th, 2009 at 10:43 AM
i wonder if you can plant seeds from dried jalapenos using the same process?
November 4th, 2009 at 8:42 AM
karen, definately depends on how the pepper was dried. If it was done with heat that process may have very will sterilized the seeds. Though if happened with simple air drying they should be great assuming they were mature peppers when picked/dried.