• If you need help identifying a pepper, disease, or plant issue, please post in Identification.

harvesting Harvesting Seed Question

SL3

SL3

I have already been gutting ripe pods for seed and freezing the flesh for later usage. A friend of mine came by and said that I would get much better germination rates if I would just leave some pods on the plant until the end of the season and then pick them for the seed.
 
Do any of you practice this and does it really make a difference? As is, once a pod ripens I wait about one week then pick to eat or deseed. So far all my seed has looked really good with the exception of some Yellow Brain Strains that the seeds were clearly immature, even when picked from what looked to be very ripe pods.
 
I prefer slightly over ripe, but as long as they are fully ripe they should work fine. You can only leave pods on the plant for so long before they fall off and rot.
 
Seed is viable when the pod reaches full size.  Ripening is just the next step that indicates clearly that it has reached full size.  Once it has turned colors there is no further wait that will improve germination.  Then again there's no rush to pull the seeds out either.  You could even string pods together into a ristra and hang dry them then plant a whole pod in the ground next spring, but if the pod molds or rots it's best to get the seed out of that environment so it can't attack the sprout when it comes up and is vulnerable.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top