I'm wondering if there are specific steps I should take to store seeds from my bell peppers. I've let them dry for a couple of days, but is it enough to just put them away as they are? Any particular tips for ensuring they stay viable?
3 Answers
It really depends on the type of vegetables you're dealing with! With bell peppers, once you’re sure they’re completely dry, you can just throw them in a baggie and store them in a cool, dark place like a cabinet. It's important to keep them dry to avoid mold. Just a heads up, if the peppers were hybrid varieties, they might produce different plants than what you're used to. So, make sure you know what you’re working with!
Just remember, if your bell peppers were harvested when they were immature, like the green ones sometimes are, the seeds might not grow. But if they were fully ripe, you're likely in good shape! I’ve never had an issue storing them dry like that, they tend to be pretty resilient.
Also, when dealing with tomatoes or cucumbers, the seeds need a bit of special treatment, like fermenting for tomatoes to remove the jelly coating, but with bell peppers, it’s straightforward! Just keep them in a dry, dark spot after drying for a couple of days, and you should be good to go.
Yeah, I’ve had some success with older seeds too! I once dried ghost pepper seeds for months, totally forgot about them, and they still germinated later.