How to treat chili seeds for germinating? Possible at all?

[T-Bird]

Hi.

For the first time, our chili growing really paid off. At first, we were discouraged when only 3 of the 5 seeds germinated out of a 3€ bag, but in the end we were treated with three nice bushes that produced plenty of red, really hot but tasty small chillies.

Needless to say the paper bag that the seeds came in was destroyed, so absolutely no idea what the species is .

So, before I chopped and dried the the first batch of the chillies, I extracted the seeds.

What then?

Freeze treatment?
Heat treatment?
Acid treatment?

In the nature the seeds obviously go through birds intestinal tract before germinating, do I try to replicate that with chemicals?


There's plenty of dried ones, a few in the whole chillies, and still plenty in the ones that are in the bushes, so I can try variety of treating methods.

I obviously tried Googling, but as my horticultural vocabulary is limited to say the least and my horticultural knowledge even worse, all I found was instructions for germinating.

Also, an additional instructions on how to ensure that the bushes we have now would produce chillies next year would also be great .

Thanks in advance.

Regards
Sam

[crustychef]

My father in-law just lets them dry naturally. Then plants them. No need for special treatments.

[thefruitfarmer]

Keep them in the fridge.

Warm damp and dark environment is what causes them to germinate and grow in search of light.

I tried chillis a couple of years ago bu tmy garden does n't get the amount of light they need. The courgettes ( zoukinis ) did much better.

[DanRJBrasil]

dry them naturally , if want to keep them for many years put in the fridge, in a paper bag inside a plastic container with dry rice to keep it dry

[T-Bird]

Hi.

Thank You, I'll let you know how it went, in about 6 months I guess .

Regards
Sam

[Vorago]

I've grown peppers and paprika's just planting naturally dried seeds from peppers from the store.

[Bett]

You can plant a seed or two now, and keep it as a houseplant through the winter. Or you could take one of this years plants inside. I'm actually gonna try taking one of out bell peppers in this winter (we didn't have any hot chilies this year). I came across this site.. http://www.fatalii.net/growing/index...d=12&Itemid=26
some weeks back and it sparked my interest in chili plants. I actually saw the bonsai chili page first (they have it in Finnish) and thought I'd save one of our plants from dying outside in the winter. It looks like an interesting project. You could even just keep it as a normal sized plant, give it enough light, and get chilies in the winter. And if you do it with a plant from this year, you don't even have to wait for it to grow anymore. It should keep making peppers for a while if it gets enough light. You'll have to pollinate it by hand though.

[BlacksHole]

We grew Habanero peppers this year. They are very hot (not like the Ghost Chilis though). We were a little light challenged so they took longer to mature, but since they are so hot, I used several while still green so I could at least taste them. Great little pepper though.

[Phalex]

I find that dried peppers make great containers to store dried pepper seeds in. When you're ready to plant, fold them up in a wet paper towel over night (not refrigerated) and plant them the next day.

[thefruitfarmer]

Originally Posted by BlacksHole

We grew Habanero peppers this year. They are very hot (not like the Ghost Chilis though). We were a little light challenged so they took longer to mature, but since they are so hot, I used several while still green so I could at least taste them. Great little pepper though.

That's the problem I had - but I am really fond of Habenero peppers, they really clear my head!

Like Brett says maybe the trick is to germinate the seeds in about January and grow them indoors for a couple of months to give them a head start before the growing season.

[Schlyder]

you could take some cuttings and not have to start from seed at all.
You will have plants that will be more active, and will be bigger by the time they need to go outside.