Saving seed question

[spyfferoni]

I want to save some pepper seeds, but I've read that peppers either need to isolated or blossoms bagged. At what stage do you bag the blossom? Could I plant some peppers in my front yard and some spread around my garden in the backyard?

Thanks! Obviously I've never done this before.

Tyff

[nctomatoman]

I've not bagged them either, but I think that it is probably easier to bag the plant for a few weeks while some of the flowers are opening and pollinating (as long as you can exclude small bees from entering). I would think that bagging indivual pepper blossoms very, very challenging.

[feldon30]

I would just bag the entire pepper plant.

You will need to shake the plant periodically to get it to pollinate.

[spyfferoni]

Craig what do you do to keep your pepper seed pure? Do you bag the whole plant or isolate the plants you plan on saving seed from?

Thank!

Tyff

[nctomatoman]

Hey Tyff - first, I don't do nearly as good a job as I would like in keeping them pure (then again, I've been able to work through some cool selections with a little help from the bees!). I find that it works out quite well with purity, however, if I save seed from the initial few fruit that set early in the season, before the bees get going and find the pepper blossoms. When it gets really hot and the plants are loaded with blossoms, the bees really buzz out there and probably are doing all sorts of genetic experiments. Or, if I wait until really late in the season, when the bee number declines, saving seeds from very late set fruit has worked well for me also.

[spyfferoni]

Craig, that sounds a lot easier that bagging blossoms.
Thanks,
Tyff

[gardenmaniac]

I use little spice bags with draw strings from SESE.

I have also heard you can use a half of a empty pill capsule you can buy at health food stores. They come in many sizes. I am going to try it this year. When the flower begins to swell and looks like it will open the next day, you slide the capsule over the flower (it needs to be snug). Then as the new pollinated pepper begins to grow, the capsule will just get pushed off. That is the theory anyway. I think my flower buds will be too small for the size capsules that I found. Of course, the first rain it would probably turn to mush...

Good luck!
Tiffanie

[montanamato]

Feldon....You are too funny at times...Tyff lives along the front range of the Rockies , as do I....Instead of shaking the plants, we do need to periodically straighten them back up, after the nearly constant wind gusts die down !

Jeanne

[spyfferoni]

Right you are Jeanne! We have micro-bursts every couple of years---they are scary.

Another question:
I saved some Sweet Banana seeds last summer, and they aren't germinating. I saved some seeds from the peppers I entered at the fair. They were yellow with a little of a peach color. I am wondering if they weren't mature enough?
Luckily I planted some purchased seeds too.

Tyff