issue Seed question

[hadanero]

Not sure if this is the right section for the question, but I have a seed issue.

I tried my hand at collecting some seeds from my first jalapeno plant last night. It's not a special plant, but I thought I'd use it to learn a few things: how to collect seeds, propagate with cuttings, and overwinter it as a bonchi. The seeds looked good when I collected them last night--at least, they were the shape and color of seeds that come in the mail. But this morning, they looked as you see in the picture: brown and unhealthy. What causes this? Unripe peppers?

 

[CaneDog]

I've had seeds look like that and worse and still had awesome germination rates. Even when they get that dark dot in the middle that makes it look like the embryo died. Not sure why they look like that. How quickly did you dry them and at what temperature?

 

[hadanero]

That's encouraging!

I didn't do anything special to dry them - I collected them and set them on the plate to dry at room temperature. This picture was 12 hours after collecting them.

 

[Marturo]

What causes this? Unripe peppers?

Did you collect seed from unripe peppers?

 

[Marturo]

My seeds look light in color when harvested . Then after 2 days on a Styrofoam plate on top of our commercial Bunn coffee maker they turn slightly darker tan in color before I pack them.

 

[hadanero]

Did you collect seed from unripe peppers?

Possibly. They were dark green, but none of the peppers on this plant ever turned red. A few turned dark black, but only where there was sun exposure.

I'm not actually sure which type of jalapeno it's meant to be--the pods were all small and the heat is higher than what I was expecting from a jalapeno. I got the original seeds from a friend in Montana who got them from an heirloom seed source she has. These seeds will likely not grow to type as the plant right next to this had pods that looked the same, but had no heat at all, and readily ripened to red.

Editing to add: I'm mostly collecting the seeds to learn about the process and to satisfy some curiosity as to what they'll produce. The plant itself seems to have handled getting the bonchi treatment, and I have two cuttings that seem to be healthy.

 

[CaneDog]

Good sleuthing @Marturo. I wasn't thinking that the pods might not have been red-ripe.

I did some tests a couple years back with seeds from partially ripe jalapeno from the grocery store to see at what point they'd become significantly viable. I've heard people say they got sprouts from green jalapenos and I wondered what my results would be at various stages. Short answer is I got no germination from anything without red on it. I can't say that would apply in all situations based on just a few pods from the store, but my takeaway was to expect that seed viability is achieved fairly late in the ripening process.

I'd be curious whether any of your seeds will germinate, hadenero. Have you considered test germinating a few to see if they're viable?

 

[hadanero]

That's really helpful, everyone! It's nice to learn with the help of a friendly group.

I'll try a few and see!