• Do you need help identifying a 🌶?
    Is your plant suffering from an unknown issue? 🤧
    Then ask in Identification and Diagnosis.

indian chile

bravesfan

bravesfan

I picked up a couple Indian chiles today at the farmers market, nice and hot...
One of the pods I grabbed was red and ripe and I would like to harvest the seeds and plant them.
Is it ever too late to plant in pots if you plan on overwintering anyway? Or is it better to harvest the seeds and wait til late winter and plant then?
 
I think you could go either way. Overwintering is not without its own set of challenges (here come the aphids!), but you'd have a head start for next year. I overwintered about 20 plants, but they don't seem to have the vigor that I've got from new plants from seed. May be best to wait and get them started in January or February.

I got a late start on a couple of types in mid-May. They are now about 6 inches tall, and I don't think they'll manage to produce ripe pods this season. I'll probably try overwintering them.
 
I harvested the seeds and am going to wait til late winter to start them.
Is it best to sundry them or just leave them on the counter for a few days?
 
No humidity here, so my fresh seeds went into a paper bag on the window sill for a few days.

I am going to "try" starting a bunch in an aerogarden in a few weeks----give them 5 or 6 months before dirting them in pots.
Need the space for sprouting 70 peppers in January for summer planting.

I'll glog it for posterity, and maybe a warning to numbskulls depending on the outcome.
 
A lot my starts outpaced my overwinters this year. Getting a "head start" entails giving your overwinters enough light, space, and nutrients to thrive, otherwise their growth will slow to a crawl.
 
Last fall I got some Butch T seeds and not being able to wait I planted them and kept them alive all winter inside. Compaired to the seeds I started in February, they are now the bushiest plants I have and are full of flowers and tiny pods whereas the rest of the peppers are just lolli gagging along, dont think I will get many pods from them. I am going to over winter a couple of them again so I can have another early start.
 
Depends on the amount of effort you want to go to. You can start them now then overwinter with the idea that you may have some die over the winter, or even all of them if fungus attacks or you forget to water them (just don't let soil get completely dry, not much water is needed). You may find that inside you end up with unwelcome pests like whitefly or aphids and no natural predators to get rid of them.

Even so, if you are willing to set up a reasonable intensity grow light then they won't lose their leaves and will just stop blooming and they'll have a great head start when spring comes next year.

By waiting till late winter to sew seed you cut down on the work, cut down on the size and expense of the lighting & power for it, may have more live plants but smaller ones.

Personally I would wait till late winter, to me it would be too much work for too little benefit to start some plants now though in a warmer (later in the year) climate I'd do it.
 
So the pepper is a Jwala, and the comments are all helpful...

But my question of how to dry the seeds still looms unanswered...



Thanks :)
 
depends, i always just clean as much of the flesh as humanly possible of the seeds and lay them out on a coffee filter on the counter for a week and a half or two
 
If you want to start them now just sew them into the soil. If you want to dry them and save for later you can just lay them out on a paper plate or napkin, or in a dry enough environment (A/C cooled area in the summertime) just throw then into a bowl or on any plate but make a shallow layer, not really deep.

How long it takes to dry depends on how wet they were, how much airflow, how humid the air is. The easiest answer is just spread them out on an absorbent surface and leave them be for several days, then pack them away in an area that isn't excessively moist or hot or for longest term seed viability, pack them in air tight containers and store in a refrigerator (some keep even longer below freezing but not all seeds will tolerate that - I don't know about yours). Refrigeration is not needed to use them only a year or two (or even a bit longer) from now.

I do it a bit different. I have a cardboard box with a small fan in a hole cut at one end and another hole cut at the opposite end for the air exhaust. By having active airflow I can pile the seeds up higher in little plastic tubs and have them out of the way taking up less space yet still have them dry in a reasonable amount of time. I probably wouldn't have gone to the trouble except I had the fan, the box, the little plastic tubs, and was curious... that and having several different types of pepper seeds to dry so I wanted something small a lot of seeds would fit in while they did. "Lot" being a relative term, I'm not talking farmer's crop level volumes of seeds... Just what I'd get after making a couple gallons of hot sauce or preparing a batch of pods for freezing or whatever.
 
Gotrox said:
I am going to "try" starting a bunch in an aerogarden in a few weeks----give them 5 or 6 months before dirting them in pots.
Click to expand...
5-6 months in an aero is less likely. With 7 plants. Won't make it past 3 months as the roots will be a mess. This is 7 weeks
9482fa3c.jpg


I'll say save the seeds.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top