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They say the only dumb question......

geeme

geeme

.... is the one not asked. So here goes...


Frequently when deseeding pods, I'll notice at least a few seeds that are dark inside. Not dark at all on the outside, but just on the inside. So I generally don't think this is mold, but not really knowing why they are that way, and knowing that most seeds aren't like that, I just pitch them. But as I was deseeding a pod earlier, I started thinking that I really don't know that the seeds are necessarily bad - could be that they would germinate just fine and grow into healthy plants just like the white-centered seeds. Maybe. Maybe not. But could it just be that some are darker than others genetically, and this doesn't translate into anything more than a color difference, like people? Or is it, as I have suspected, indication of something not particularly good?
 
you mean like this?
IMG_4111.jpg


i am curious about the cause, also
 
In this instance I feel safe in saying that something that isn't the same as the "normal" ones that aren't 100% successful in the first place can be discarded without giving it a second thought.
 
Good question geeme.
I'm also curious, I've always thrown them out.
When germinating seeds in paper towel or cup in high light you can see the root starting to grow inside the seed before it pops out, and it's about the exact size of the black inside the darker seeds. So therefore I always thought it was a maturing problem or the seed was just defective..
 
whew, i am glad you asked the question, that way i don't look dumb...........wait, did i just implicate myself?

(those are the ones i used for trades)

i was deseeding yesterday and had the same thoughts but then i also pondered another question, is it really important to select the best pods for seeds or will small pods from the same plant produce just as good plants?

i know everything i have read, says pick the best pods but then no explanation as to why; some say for the dna. i know i have saved seeds from not so pretty pods and plants have grown true to the original plant and not to the pod they came from. imagine following an old wives tale just because someone has kept repeating the same phrase for a couple hundred of years. i am not a biologist so i just don't know.
 
Burning Colon, I don't see any reason why it should matter what the pod you take the seed from looks like, only who the parent(s) of the seed are. If you have two pods from the same plant, both self-pollinated, and one is small and misshapen, and the other is nice and large and more true to the variety...the DNA contained within the seeds still came from the same exact same gene pool, so why would seed from the better looking pod be any better? They should have roughly the same genes, and which one has preferable genetics should just be a matter of chance and not determinable based on the shape of the pods. The phenotype of the pod, as far as I know, is not reflective of the DNA contained within the seeds of those pods. If it were, than pods that contain crossed seeds would not look true to form. But they do, if you have a Trinidad scorpion that crosses with a poblano, the pod is still going to look like a Trinidad scorpion (until you grow out the seeds, of course).

As long as the pods are fully ripe, fresh, and free of disease, and the seeds are fully formed, it shouldn't matter what the pods look like, only what the plant looks like (and the plant that pollinates the flower if it's not self-pollinated). I'm going to have to assume the taking seeds from the best looking pods thing is an old wives' tale, unless someone has a scientific explanation as to why it's not...
 
Patrick - I have no idea if these would be "successful" or not, as I've always tossed them. And part of my thought process is that color, in and of itself, doesn't mean that something is defective, so that's not a good assumption to make.

Mark - LOL - guess we're all "guilty" here!

I think I'll try germinating a few and see what happens. Anyone else game? We can compare results, have a broader test case.
 
I supplied quite a few seeds with the dark spot in the middle of them as posted by souf.
It has been reported that the seeds exhibited around a 95% germination rate.
 
Interesting, Nova.

I am very curious as to what causes this color difference, and whether it makes a difference in the adult plants, too.
 
geeme-- you may be correct, I've never grown them either. Thing is it isn't the color that concerns me it's the fact that the black, in these circumstances, usually means something is rotten. Plus I usually have all the seeds I need so discarding black ones isn't an issue. If I had a rare or very cool pepper I wanted to grow real bad and seeds were limited I would probably plant the seeds regardless of appearance.

I would like to know how it does turn out if anyone plants them.
 
Yep, Patrick, that's just it - black usually means something's rotten. But then I got to thinking: I know it's DARK, but I don't really know that it's actually BLACK inside, and there are absolutely no other signs of anything wrong. So I realized I've been making an assumption all this time, but my preferred approach is to actually KNOW instead of guess.

11010490 - Thanks for the link. I'll definitely be checking it out.
 
Novacastrian said:
I supplied quite a few seeds with the dark spot in the middle of them as posted by souf.
It has been reported that the seeds exhibited around a 95% germination rate.
Click to expand...

That's good to know, I saved some that look like that out of necessity this year. I'm going to treat them first and then try them.

Does anyone know what causes the seeds to rot early inside of an otherwise healthy looking pod? I think the seeds with the black insides are just the early stages of that, since it seems to only occur in plants that are putting out some pods with black/moldy looking seeds. I've never seen a sure answer, and I've done a lot of googling on it and never found anything. It seems likely that it would occur in extremely wet conditions because it looks like some kind of mold, but it's just the opposite in my experience, I get those type of pods in the middle of summer in drought conditions.
 
Nah, Potawie was just posting facts - it is very well documented that pubescens won't crosss with non-pubescens. Though, that said, I guess my yellow canario could cross with my red manzanos....
 
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