Growing my own peppers - newb question

G

GWS

It's only been recently that I have developed a taste for hot peppers. I've always like spicey foods but never really cared for the taste of peppers.

I guess it's true that your tastes change as you age. Last year a friend from south of the border got me to eating jalepenos on popcorn and lately I've been putting them on just about everthing. I think I've adjusted to the heat as they don't have much effect anymore.

I think I'd like to grow my own peppers but wasn't sure what would be the best way to get started. Should I just keep some seeds from a fresh jalepeno and plant them or are there particular sources used for seeds? Or do you just buy a plant?

What other peppers are good to grow at home? I like grilling them and making my own salsa.

TIA
 
get your ass to a seed site like pepper joes or whatever and buy 10 packs of seeds and read here on how to grow them.
then like me grow them and wait till they produce and get out your zip lock and fill and eat.
 
Thanks for the tip. I ordered some peppers from pepperjoe.com. Not really sure about my choices, but at such cheap prices, I'm willing to experiment.

I ordered the following seeds:

Jalepeno Pepper-Early
Charleston Pepper
Bolivian Rainbow Pepper
Golden Habenero Pepper
 
Thats a good start GWS ---Just ask your Q's and we all can help you out. Then you too can play Hover over Precious and micromanage. Good luck
 
Peppers need to be ripe before they're picked for the seeds to be viable. Since most grocery store jalapeños are unripe, the seeds won't germinate. Peppers that are sold in grocery stores are also often hybrids, that is they are a cross between two varieties, and at least half of the seeds won't be true to the parent plant. And the only way to tell which ones are true is to grow them out.

If you like grilling peppers, you might want to try one of the cherry peppers as well as the jalapeños, the nice thick flesh makes for good grilling. You might want to check out some serranos or hot wax-types, too.

Before you start your seeds, I would suggest reading several articles on growing peppers from seeds. There are plenty of them here on this site, and there are even more on the web. If you read about several different methods before you dash out and buy stuff, you can figure out which system suits you best before you spend a lot of money on something you don't like.

There are also a vast number of sites that sell pepper seeds, and you might want to browse a few to get an idea of the enormous variety of peppers out there. Peppermania, Tomato Growers Supply, Seeds of Change, Seed Savers.org, Baker's Creek Heirloom Seed, Victory Seeds, Territorial Seeds, and Park Seed are just the companies that I can think of off the top of my head. There are bunches more out there.
 
Thanks Pam.

I'll get to reading. We have a short, mild winter here in Houston, so hopefully I'm not too late in the year to start growing.
 
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