Growing from the Seeds from Peppers

Dear Henry:

Any chance I could use the seeds from a habanero pepper to germinate into plants? If so, what are the steps you’d suggest?

Answer from Pat:

As long as you planted and grew old fashioned, non-hybrid, open-pollenated varieties of pepper—or of any other vegetable for that matter— sure, you can collect, dry and save the seeds over winter and plant them in your garden the following year. If a habanero pepper has that name and is true to that name it’s a very ancient open-pollinated variety and even though growers have tried to select larger one’s it’s still open pollinated, the real thing and not a hybrid. Habanero is the hottest of all peppers and has a distinctive flavor. Many gardeners save seeds of habanero and other old-fashioned peppers to plant the following year.

Gardeners who regularly save seeds try to leave especially large and excellent fruits on the largest plant and then they tag these so they don’t accidentally pick them. It’s customary to allow these chosen fruits to fully mature before picking them for one’s seed crop. The seeds inside immature fruit, picked early, will also usually be immature and thus not as successful. On the other hand, the seeds of large healthy plants and fruits will result in healthy, vigorous plants and a good harvest the following year. This is how mankind has selected plants for thousands of years so they continually get bigger and better.

After harvesting fruits, clean out the seeds and put into a sieve and wash them off . Then dry the clean seeds spread out on paper towels. When completely dry, store in a cool, dark, dry place over winter. Plant out in spring as you would any pepper seeds, either out in the garden or in pots, as you prefer.

However, be very sure you do not save, plant and grow the seeds of hybrid vegetables, such as simple F1 hybrids (first generation hybrids) because these will produce very peculiar offspring that are nothing like their parents and are usually highly inferior and certainly not worth growing.