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Volunteers this year

SavinaRed

SavinaRed

My best guess are that these 3 pics are jalapeno's, caribbean reds and bishops crowns based upon where they are growing from last years plants. What do you guys normally do with volunteer peppers plants ?
 

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solid7 said:
What to do with free pepper plants? Come on, now... What do your instincts tell you? LOL
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I really don't have room. My thought with seeing how many plants popped up from ripe and rotted peppers on the ground is to use this area as my nursery instead of my garage like I did this winter and then babying the plants and hardening them off. These look pretty healthy. So I'm thinking throwing seed out after harvest when I pull out the plants and see what happens come spring. What do you think of that idea ?
 
It seems like allot of time & TLC growing seedlings especially when it comes to hot peppers. Tomatoes this year were much easier and healthier than my peppers grown under lights. 
 
I don't have peppers seeds survive the winter.  I left some outside in the soil as an experiment from last year, no movement yet.  We will see though.   
 
Nothing like free plants.   
 
I say you do a give away.  Uproot them suckers and get em stable in a pot and send em to your fellow pepper buddies! 
 
Vicious Vex said:
I don't have peppers seeds survive the winter.  I left some outside in the soil as an experiment from last year, no movement yet.  We will see though.   
 
Nothing like free plants.   
 
I say you do a give away.  Uproot them suckers and get em stable in a pot and send em to your fellow pepper buddies! 
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Weird, I have hundreds of volunteers each year in DE, tons of tomatoes as well. 
 
JoynersHotPeppers said:
Weird, I have hundreds of volunteers each year in DE, tons of tomatoes as well. 
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I think the freeze-thaw cycles kill them or cause them to rot.  I'm not sure though.  Which is why I'm doing the experiment. 
 
Vicious Vex said:
 
I think the freeze-thaw cycles kill them or cause them to rot.  I'm not sure though.  Which is why I'm doing the experiment. 
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I never had an issue in Va or NC, maybe you are just lucky because it can really be a PIA hahahahha
 
JoynersHotPeppers said:
I never had an issue in Va or NC, maybe you are just lucky because it can really be a PIA hahahahha
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I had an odd theory that the salt and clay had something to do with it, being on the coast.   
 
Maybe my seed stock just always sucks.  - That would make me feel better about the occasionally abysmal germination rates I have from saved seeds. 
 
I have planted many seeds that come out of frozen pods. (superhots) I can't say if germination is anyhow impacted, but I don't have problem with starts. MOA scotch bonnet, fatalii, wiri-wiri, beni highland, reapers, and many others. Maybe you wouldn't want to buy previously frozen stock, but I assure you that a freeze will not kill the seed.
 
Indeed, repeated freezes and thaws don't seem to affect the seeds. One of my coworkers left some ghost peppers in the back of the freezer in the mini fridge at work, which has a lot of difficulty keeping things frozen. I saved the seeds from one of the half-frozen peppers that had been through God knows how many freeze/thaw cycles, and the germination rates were excellent.
 
alkhall said:
You never know, you might get some new cross.
 
I had this volunteer last season:
 
http://thehotpepper.com/topic/57792-a-volunteer-what-is-it/?hl=volunteer
 
Growing it out this year just to see what i get. Since it was growing underneath the Yellow 7-Pot/King Naga cross (#1), maybe it will yield something even more exotic?
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that would be cool as my caribbeans were right next to my bishops last year where the seedlings popped up.
 
     At the very least, you have a pretty cool cover crop. Maybe they'll give your resident community of friendly soil microbes a jump start. 
     I usually end up tilling before any pepper volunteers pop up, but if I ever see one, I'll let it grow just to see how well it does. In my experience direct seeded plants (especially trees and shrubs - like pepper plants) almost always do better than transplants. I know that with nut trees like oaks and hickories, it's really important for them to establish a deep taproot to withstand moisture fluctuations later in life. Maybe that could give a pepper plant an advantage in a hot, dry climate.
 
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