seeds Will pepper seeds germinate after being frozen?

[Marturo]

Have you tried freezing pepper seeds & growing them?

Can Pepper Seeds Grow After Being Frozen? Tips for Successful Germination - Price Seeds

So, Will pepper seeds germinate after being frozen?

priceseeds.com

 

[BlackFatalii]

Yes. They will germinate just fine provided that they were allowed to dry out sufficiently before they were placed in the freezer. Seeds thrown in the freezer immediately after being cut out of a fresh pod typically don't germinate at all, in my experience.

 

[Marturo]

Do you freeze you seeds for storage?
Will freezing help keep seeds viable longer?

 

[BlackFatalii]

I generally store mine in the fridge, or just in a cool dark place in the house. Yes, freezing should also keep seeds viable longer, possibly for a lot longer. The big seed banks store their seeds frozen, after all.

 

[Marturo]

The big seed banks store their seeds frozen, after all.

It's time to freeze my seeds I believe.

The world’s richest bank: how we store the world’s seeds | Kew

We go down into Wakehurst’s underground vaults, which lay at the heart of our work to protect plants around the world – the Millennium Seed Bank.

www.kew.org

 

[Tinkerbelle]

god I'd love to get my sticky fingers into the vault at Kew Gardens

 

[CaneDog]

Came here to say the biggest factor is likely proper dehydration prior to storage and that the big seed banks store seeds at below freezing, but @BlackFatalii beat me to both points. Not the first time that's happened either!

 

[Marturo]

Came here to say the biggest factor is likely proper dehydration prior to storage and that the big seed banks store seeds at below freezing, but @BlackFatalii beat me to both points. Not the first time that's happened either!

Please cover proper Dehydration.
We dry our seeds in various ways. I use the top front coffee pot area, on a Bunn commercial coffee maker.
Seeds dry in 3 days & I store them in plastic bags inside paper seeds packs.

Can you see proper dehydration? Can you feel it? I must know before I send any of my seeds to the freezer.
I feel like my seeds are properly dehydrated, never had a problem with mold. What else to look for?

 

[shibby]

I usually freeze my pods fresh after harvest. I planted 24 pods, 3 seeds from each, 72 seeds total. 19 germinated and are now healthy plants. Most of them are sets of 3, so only 6-7 pods out of the original 24 were viable after freezing to -20°F. This year I will dry the seeds before freezing to see if it effects the germination rate. These were all pods from the same plant.

I also planted seeds from other pods, also frozen, of other plants and they germinated much better, probably about 50/50.

Drying the seeds is mostly making sure there is no moisture to freeze and damage the seed when it expands. If they look, feel, etc. like store bought ones then it's probably fine.

 

[Marturo]

I usually freeze my pods fresh after harvest. I planted 24 pods, 3 seeds from each, 72 seeds total. 19 germinated and are now healthy plants. Most of them are sets of 3, so only 6-7 pods out of the original 24 were viable after freezing to -20°F

Can't get more wet than fresh frozen.
I have seen Tomato's, Eggplant & peppers coming up in spring around the Compost pile.

Biker Billy told me he had many frozen BB pods still frozen. I'll ask him if any are red ripe.

 

[CaneDog]

Please cover proper Dehydration.
We dry our seeds in various ways. I use the top front coffee pot area, on a Bunn commercial coffee maker.
Seeds dry in 3 days & I store them in plastic bags inside paper seeds packs.

Can you see proper dehydration? Can you feel it? I must know before I send any of my seeds to the freezer.
I feel like my seeds are properly dehydrated, never had a problem with mold. What else to look for?

Hey Marturo. Sure. I dry my seeds in various ways too. Typically, during colder months when our humidity is low and the heat is running regularly, I put them on top of the Nesco dehydrator for several hours to dry the seeds' outsides quickly, then I just leave them out somewhere with no extra heat for a couple/few weeks. My thinking is that at room temperature in a dry environment for 2-3 weeks is enough to finish the drying, it's a more gradual/gentle process, and I don't have to worry about over drying them as I might if I kept them on heat. I don't test them in any way and don't really know any fool-proof methods; I just let time do the work and have a general feel for what they're like when dry.

This site can no longer be accessed directly now, but is accessible through the Wayback Machine. I think it has decent information on and recommended methods for saving seeds - Vegetable Seed Saving Handbook

 

[Marturo]

Thank you @CaneDog for this source, I've not seen this before. https://web.archive.org/web/20200129134858/http://www.howtosaveseeds.com/store.php

. I don't test them in any way and don't really know any fool-proof methods; I just let time do the work and have a general feel for what they're like when dry.

It makes a lot of sense to freeze some of your seeds as you can't grow all your varieties each year.
I'm going to freeze 25 percent of my seeds, & the other 75 percent will be stored in Cool dry morture free space.

I know. marturo will pull some seeds out of the freezer in one year & do a germination test. LOL

 

[CaneDog]

I had a couple bad performers recently that were about 6-8 years old, when normally I have solid results going back that far. Maybe I should follow your lead and do a better job with storage and maintenance for the varieties I don't grow often, but want to have dependably available in the future.

A consideration that occurs to me with freezing or refrigerating seeds for storage is that condensation can form when you remove the cold seeds into a warm house to access them, then create issues when the dampened seeds continue to be stored. Much like if you have a guitar in a case outside in cold temperatures then bring it into a warmer inside environment, it's probably safest to let everything warm to room temperature before exposing the contents to the warmer, more humid aid to prevent condensation from forming.

 

[Marturo]

You have a good point. How to remove seeds without introducing moisture.
I think it's important to keep the seeds in multiple small jars with foil around the 10 pack of
seeds.

Would it be best to take the jar from freezer to refrigerator & then to room temp?
The removal & replacement will have to be well thought out. Let's say I take
seeds out only after my cool dark stored seeds get to old.

 

[CaneDog]

I don't really know whether it would make a difference going from freezer to fridge to room temp. I'd take out the minimum seeds possible each time and that isn't much thermal mass, so without the fridge step they'd thaw quite quickly. Seems like transitioning them through the fridge could only help and not hurt.

And I like the idea of keeping most of the seeds of each variety in regular storage for regular use and only some in the freezer for long-term storage as back-up. That probably prevents most problems in that you're not having to dig into the jar as often. Plus keeping fewer seeds frozen means less hassle.

 

[Marturo]

And I like the idea of keeping most of the seeds of each variety in regular storage for regular use and only some in the freezer for long-term storage as back-up.

25 percent of my collection frozen for Long term storage.
Then just keep doing germination test each season on the cool dark seeds.

From what I have learned freezing seems to be a good hedge against losing
your collection.

Thanks everyone for your great input, as usual.