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Seed saving · Capsicum annuum

Saving pepper seed

Straightforward to process — no fermentation — but there is a hidden trap: a sweet pepper can carry chilli genetics without showing any sign of it.

Saving pepper seedAnnual
Life cycle
Annual (tender perennial)
Pollination
Self-pollinating, but insects cross
Isolation
30–60 m
Seed life
3–4 years
Yield
1 fruit gives 50–150 seed

Pepper seed is easy to extract and dry. There is no gel to ferment and the seed comes away cleanly from the central core. The difficulty is not the method, it is the genetics.

All Capsicum annuum varieties cross with each other — bell peppers, jalapeños, cayennes, padróns. They are self-pollinating, so crossing is less frequent than in squash, but insects do it and the consequence is delayed by one generation.

The protocol

  1. 1

    Let the fruit ripen fully

    Past eating stage. For a red variety, fully red and slightly soft; for a green variety, until it changes colour. Seed from a green fruit is immature and will not germinate well.

  2. 2

    Cut and scrape

    Cut around the stem end and pull the core out. The seed is clustered on the central placenta. Scrape it off with a fingernail or a spoon — it comes away easily.

  3. 3

    Discard damaged seed

    Any seed that is discoloured, shrivelled or dark. Healthy pepper seed is pale cream to straw coloured.

  4. 4

    Dry fully

    Spread on a plate or paper, in a dry room, for one to two weeks. Pepper seed holds moisture and needs longer than you expect. It should snap, not bend.

  5. 5

    Store

    Sealed jar, silica, cool and dark. Three to four years.

What goes wrong

The delayed heat problem. This is the one to understand. If a sweet pepper flower is pollinated by a chilli, the fruit you are holding is still sweet — the cross only appears in the plants grown from that seed. You cannot tell by looking, tasting, or inspecting the seed.

If you grew sweet and hot varieties together and cannot guarantee isolation, assume the seed is crossed. The offspring may be anything from mild to volcanic.

Not waiting for colour. Seed from an unripe fruit is immature and has poor viability.

Drying too briefly. Pepper seed that still bends goes mouldy in a sealed jar within weeks.

Growing it first? The full cultivation guide — sowing, feeding, harvest — is at Growing peppers.
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Saved seed from this crop?

Germination rates, what came true and what crossed — post it and let other growers learn from it.

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All 14 protocols

Annual, biennial and vegetative crops all save differently. The index compares them side by side.

Seed saving index Isolation distances