Saving Pepper Seed?

[heirloomer08]

Hello all,

I have saved my own tomato seed for years and now I am wanting to save my own pepper seed. So with that being said I would like to know if anybody could tell me the proper spacing on peppers to get back pure seed. Some of my peppers are not easy to get for me so that is why I would like to start saving seed. Any and all suggestions would be very helpful! Thank you in advance for any advice!
heirloomer08

[mcsee]

Bag your blossom - best tip I can give.

[TZ-OH6]

I have found it easiest to bag the whole plant when it is young. A yard peice of tulle netting folds over into a nice sized large bag. Keep the bag on until the plant outgrows it if you need alot of seed or take it off and use it on another plant if you only need a few "pure" peppers.

[Blueaussi]

Bagging your blossoms is the best way to go. Generally speaking, peppers cross pollinate easier than tomatoes. Do you know the species of the peppers you're most interested in keeping? Fatalii's web site has a nice chart that shows which species cross more readily with others. You might be able to buffer rare plants against cross pollination by surrounding them with a species whith which it doesn't cross well.

http://www.fatalii.net/growing/index...d=35&Itemid=54

Scroll down to find the chart.

For bagging, a homemade bag of tulle or even just a tea bag works, or the small wedding bags you can buy at most big bag stores work well. You can also buy paint strainer bags that work.

[heirloomer08]

Here is a list of the peppers that I want to save seed from. This may help with any ideas.

Fish, Casablanca, Bhut Jolokia, Florida Wild, Maui Purple, Tepin, Thai, Texas Petin Chili, Sweet Red Cherry, Cherry Bomb, Serreno, Vietnamese Tear Jerker, Zimbabwe Bird, Tae-Yang(Korean-don't know the english translation of this one).

Some of these will be almost impossible for me to get again. That is why I really want to try and save seed this year.

heirloomer08

[stormymater]

LOVE the name - Vietnamese Tear Jerker - made me wince (& want some to try out LOL!)

[Barbee]

I brought a couple of my harder to find peppers in the house for the winter. I grew them in pots, so it was no big deal to bring them in. I just placed in front of a sunny window and watered once a week. They lost their leaves and looked like they were dead but lo and behold, they started putting new growth out again about late January.

Walmart or any store that sells wedding supplies have those little tulle drawstring bags you put bird seed in to throw at the bride and groom as they're leaving. That should be about the right size to bag blossums or as TZ says, it might be easier just to bag the whole plant.

[montanamato]

I agree it is best to bag the entire plant...On some rare types I want w/o bagging the whole plant, I leave the seedling inside until after fruit set and then flag that pepper for seed saving...

Jeanne

[Blueaussi]

In the Great Mildew State, bagging the whole plant increases the chances of it getting a mold or fungus. I don't know what the humidity is like where heirloomer grows, but it's something to consider.

[heirloomer08]

Thanks for all the ideas so far! But if I used tulle for bagging the whole plant would it not have enough air flow? The humidity hear in Iowa is up and down. Just depends on the year.

[Love2Troll]

> But if I used tulle for bagging the whole plant would it not have enough air flow?

I think you will be OK. It's very humid where I container garden in a 'woods' near KC, Mo & works for me.

http://www.fototime.com/127099C1E8FDF0A/orig.jpg

jt

[guruofgardens]

Originally Posted by Love2Troll

> But if I used tulle for bagging the whole plant would it not have enough air flow?

I think you will be OK. It's very humid where I container garden in a 'woods' near KC, Mo & works for me.

http://www.fototime.com/127099C1E8FDF0A/orig.jpg

jt

Tulle does well for bagging, but I use the netting with larger holes - but not large enough for bees to get through and pollinate. If anyone's interested, this week Hobby Lobby is having a sale on both tulle and netting for $.77 per yard. I think it's 70" wide.

[Love2Troll]

guruofgardens writes:

Tulle does well for bagging, but I use the netting with larger holes - but not large enough for bees to get through and pollinate. If anyone's interested, this week Hobby Lobby is having a sale on both tulle and netting for $.77 per yard. I think it's 70" wide.

Thank you for a very timely (for me) post! The wider mesh netting might be just what I need to 'critter-proof' my seedling shelves out in the garden area and protect from hail. I have problems with possums and coons & had planned to use chickenwire & very expensive hardware cloth.

However, don't write off the smaller pollinators such as ants. The tulle will protect from them.

jt

[guruofgardens]

Originally Posted by Love2Troll

guruofgardens writes:

Thank you for a very timely (for me) post! The wider mesh netting might be just what I need to 'critter-proof' my seedling shelves out in the garden area and protect from hail. I have problems with possums and coons & had planned to use chickenwire & very expensive hardware cloth.

However, don't write off the smaller pollinators such as ants. The tulle will protect from them.

jt

I've used tulle/tulle bags for tomato blossoms for a few years and am pleased with the tulle. Last year the birds were a large problem (no food for them?)eating the ripe/almost ripe tomatoes, and I needed the air to flow in the tomatoes in the middle of the summer, so the netting worked pretty well. I'm not too sure about hail protection unless you double or triple the netting. It's always good to experiment and report back the good or bad results.

The mesh might just 'be the thing' for your seedling shelves. I hadn't even thought of using it there. Thanks for that suggestion! Another place to use it!

[Flame of Bodensee]

Hi,

a friend of mine use liquid Latex or other rubber similar base in liquid form to bag the blossoms with it.