Its so surprising how a capsicum/bell pepper plant with many peppers hanging on them, makes people go crazy . Anyone who came home when I have mature peppers in the plant, goes back with some seeds of the same.
Tell me, who doesn’t love to have a plant like this.. This capsicum variety is called “Banana Early Sweet”. It tastes sweet. Don’t confuse this to the variety that is used for Bajji ( That is little hot).
This post is about how to save the seeds from this pepper .
Things you need:
- Ripe pepper ( ripened while in the plant).
- A knife
- A plate
- Bright well ventilated location.
First let the pepper ripe well in the plant. It should look like this
Pluck the peppers.
Cut them open and carefully scoop out the seeds. The seeds are in the central stalk. Use the flesh for your cooking ;).
The seeds will be wet and they need little bit of drying. Spread them in a plate and keep them in a ventilated location that is bright as well. Don’t dry them in direct sunlight.
Once dried, the seeds will start looking like this.
Put them in a packet, Label them and store them in a cool dry place. If you have plenty you can also think of sharing it with a gardening buddy of yours.
GG
9 Responses
Omg…this looks so lovely and ornamental…would this grow in totally sunny place ?
Hi Sharanya,
Thanks. It grows well in sunny spot. The ones in the picture were grown in full sun actually.
gg
Hi GG just wanted to chk if you got the Gourd document i sent.
Hi Shashank,
I got it and I will soon post about it with due credits. Thanks for taking the time to share your knowledge..
Thanks
gg
Hi GG:
To see an yield like this really turns on many people ! Great and wonderful!
We harvested about 2 kg of natti tomatoes just now and it was such a de-stressing and satisfying moment for me… with my four-year old daughter squeaking with joy and thanking the plants vocally for the yield, the moment became all the more unforgettable. And, these tomato plants came on their own, as part of the compost and I just did the transplantation.
The tomato seedlings you gave are settling down after transplantation. As they are of indeterminate variety, I am gettig ready to get the 20Kg paint containers for them within a month or so!
I am eagerly waiting for your post on gourd. I have ridge gourd, bottle gourd and bitter gourd growing currently in the terrace. I did not succeed with germination of snake gourd. Do you know where we can get good seeds for the long variety of snake gourd ( the ones we get in tamilNadu). The sight of the long snake gourds, growing with stones tied at the end, would be lovely in the terrace garden, isn’t it?
Regards
Meena K
Regards
Meena K
Hi Meena,
I will be posting about the Gourd (Courtesy:Shashank) this weekend. Congrats on your tomato harvest too. The whole activity of finding tomatoes and plucking them is so joyful, that everyone should experience that. At present, I have no idea where we get the long snake gourd seeds. I will let you know once I get some info. It is indeed a lovely sight.
Cheers
gg
Meena,
You can soak the seeds in luke warm water for 24 hours and try to germinate them. You can also try to scarify the seeds which is nothing but scratching/weakening the hard seed coat. This hastens germination. The seed imbibes water much quickly. Rub the seed on a rough surface to create a small opening on a seed coat.( you can also you emery sheet). Don’t scratch it too much that it loses its seed inside.. BTW Do you have the seeds of long variety that don’t germinate?..
Thanks
gg
Hi there… interesting to note the timing of this post… it is around this time now that my larkspur, torenia, heliotropes and snapdragon flower plants are ageing… and I pretty much discovering seed saving naturally 🙂
It’s amazing how many seeds one single pod gives out… nature sure is great.
As a sample curiosity I planted some larkspur seeds into the same larkspur pot and they have thrown up some lovely strong seedlings 🙂
One question… assuming this is generic to all kinds of seed saving… how long can one keep these seeds? Do they have a lifespan within which they need to germinate?
Nice to hear that you are saving seeds of many flowers. Keep it up.
Seed viability reduces with age and it depends on the type of seed and the way it is stored. Few flowers like Pansy need fresh seeds otherwise it doesn’t germinate. Pansy being such a “pansy”. They have a life span. Tomato seeds store upto 5 years and with proper storage it can live upto 10 years. The germination rate might come down. I have sown tomato seeds that are two years old and have got good results.
gg