seeds Not getting a straight answer from the web-Frozen seeds

[Swampy_NZ]

Its been 14 days since I put down my seeds from frozen Reapers.So far I have had 11/50 come up which is pretty good as my fresh Reaper seeds took slightly longer.Will see in the next few days how many I get but it is looking promising so far.

 

[KrakenPeppers]

I hate all the misinformation and myths out there. Some people were adamant that a) seeds in nature don't freeze, and/or b) frozen seeds implode inside themselves, making them unable to germinate. Hogwash. And hogwash to that they had to be dried first. I had tossed some fresh pods into the freezer several months before and decided to take the seeds out of them and germinate them. I got 100% germination. In fact, I germinated way more plants than I wanted and I couldn't make myself throw any away, so I had a large amount of chile plants that year.
 
THE ONLY THING that is key into whether the seeds will germinate for you (assuming you take the same care with your germination that you would take with any other seeds) is that the pods had to be ripe before you froze them or the seeds. Don't buy into frozen-seed myths that say they won't germinate. 

 
Imploding is not really the right terminology... and there are different forms of freezing...
 
A slow to freeze pepper (with seeds) as like in nature or a home freezer has the small water cells contained in the moist flesh and seed embryo has small icicles form, thus creating excessive expansion and damaging the cell walls, this is usually what causes seeds to become inactive.. or dead.
 
A snap frozen product while it does still have water expansion has no real icicle crystallisation effect and the cell walls can usually take the punishment and retract without becoming damaged. Seeds are usually still viable.
 
This is what food manufacturers do to keep vegetables feel fresh upon thawing (snap freezing) rather than soggy as with normal home freezer thawing.
 
A dry seed frozen in any method wont/shouldn't be damaged by icicle creation, that's why they freeze with a higher germination level. 
 
 
ALL  this being said, there are no guarantees and it is not uncommon for people to have success with frozen pod seeds from there own home freezers too.. But Generally most people find it harder to germinate.

 

[karoo]

Just an observation.
Last season I had a small bird problem , they took a liking to my Jalapenos and cayennes.
Lots of seeds were dropped around in the. ground . After a winter of frost and a few below freezing temp nights , I had a lot of seeds germinate and grow , now transplanted into pots.
I cannot give a percentage , but those seeds were frozen and thawed a few times and had now problem growing.

 

[Noah Yates]

I can confirm from my experience that seeds from fresh, frozen pods are viable.  I actually had an over-abundance of frozen pods that were over a year old and severely frost burned... so I just let them thaw (and even some of them fermented a bit during the "prolonged" thaw... ) and then dumped several 1 gallon freezer bags full of super-hots directly into my worm farm... there were massive amounts of seedlings popping up throughout the winter... even in large clusters where the pods had remained undisturbed on the surface of the soil.  I cannot comment on exact germination rates... but I would estimate them to be fair.
 
 
hahaha... in fact.. I have one of those bags that is now 2 years old that i discovered in the bottom of the deep freeze yesterday.... I can do an experiment and post the results!!! (although I will probably throw away the seedlings, because it was a bad variety: "not 7 pot primos"

 

[Swampy_NZ]

16 days from sowing and I have 23/50 of my frozen Reaper seeds pop up.Not bad and I expect more in the next few days

 

[MiChris]

I know we store seeds in the frozen vault in Switzerland -- But I'm getting mixed answers from google- So here goes.. Will the seeds from the peppers be viable next year from the peppers I have frozen this year? I'm thinking yes but need a starlight answer to determine how I'm going to harvest seeds for next year.

To answer your question at the end of your post about how harvest seeds from next year - there are many better, easier, and less iffy ways to harvest seeds than to freeze them. If these are the only seeds available then sure, use those but just plant extra to be sure. If you have other ways to harvest and / or store the seeds you should probably go with that. There are as many mixed answers here as you will find on google.

Some plants that grow in cold climates can withstand freezing, some even require it but our favorite plant the pepper grows naturally in warm climates where it doesn't regularly see the winter deep freezes like a freezer replicates and there are a ton of variables that could make things go in the wrong direction and make the seed worthless.

 

[Noah Yates]

Frozen pods from 2013:

 
 
Moist, dank worm farm:

 
 
Let the experiment begin!!