How to collect pepper seeds at home: instructions for properly preparing seed
When growing vegetables, the quality of the seed material plays a vital role. Many people buy seeds in stores or at the market, but not always plants grown from them correspond to the declared characteristics. If you are lucky enough to find “the right” variety, try to save money and get the seeds of the plants you like yourself.
How to collect pepper seeds at home correctly? Many gardeners ask this question. The technology for harvesting your own seed is simple, but requires compliance with certain rules. We will talk about them in the article.
Which peppers are suitable for collecting seeds?
The process of preparing seed material begins with the selection of the mother plant.
Remember! A correctly chosen plant is the key to a good harvest.
Choose at least two of the healthiest, strongest and most productive mother bushes of your favorite varieties. Why at least two? This reduces the likelihood of possible mutations, gene disorders, and viral diseases.
It is recommended to choose the best bushes from the moment the seedlings are planted in the ground. When selecting, pay attention to the speed of plant growth, set, arrangement and uniformity of fruits, compliance of the fruits and the bush with the characteristic features of the variety.
Selection of fruits to collect
When choosing fruits, they are guided by the following rules:
- selection is made from shoots of the first, second or third levels;
- select the fruits that most closely match the description of the variety;
- The harvest is carried out at the stage of biological ripeness, which is at least 40 days.
Seeds obtained from fruits ripened indoors germinate better, but during long-term storage they lose their viability faster than those ripened on the plant.
Advice! Mark the selected peppers by tying a piece of gauze or tape to their stem.
Extraction and preparation of seeds from the fruits of sweet and bitter peppers
Having decided on the choice of suitable fruits, they begin the harvesting process.
What to prepare for collecting seeds
When working with sweet pepper varieties, it is enough to arm yourself with scissors or a sharp knife, paper, a plate and a marker to sign the material.
Hot peppers are a little more difficult to work with. It is recommended to use gloves during harvesting. This is not necessary, since the outer surface of the fruit does not contain capsaicin, the substance responsible for the pungency.
If you do get burned, know that capsaicin is soluble in oils, alcohols and organic solvents. That is, to wash the substance off the face and hands, they are first rubbed with vegetable oil and then washed off with soap.
If capsaicin gets into your eyes, rinse them with cold water.
Obtaining seed material
So, the selected ripe fruits are cut. Next, remove the seeds by making a circular cut around the stalk, not forgetting to cut off the internal partitions, or simply cut the pepper in half.
The next stage is drying. Experienced gardeners recommend drying the seeds directly on the stalks, leaving the plates with the material in a dry and warm room. After the seeds have dried, they are dehusked.
Advice! Harvest those seeds that are closer to the stalk, as they receive better nutrition.
Rules for storing seed material
Proper storage is the key to high-quality seed for next year. Well-dried seeds are stored in paper bags or envelopes. The paper allows air to pass through, and the seeds in them breathe, unlike sealed plastic packaging.
Attention! On packets of seeds, indicate the name of the crop, variety, year of collection, as well as distinctive characteristics: color, fruit size, ripening time, etc.
Packages with seed material are placed in a cool room with low air humidity. Storage at room temperature is allowed if the room is dry. If stored properly, pepper seeds are useful for 3-4 years.
Five ways to make storage bags with your own hands from Tatyana the Gardener:
How to prepare seeds for planting
Before sowing, the seeds are sorted, selecting the largest ones. Then they are dipped in a saline solution (1 tablespoon of table salt per liter of water). Disinfection is carried out in a 1% alcohol solution of brilliant green for 30 minutes, followed by washing and drying.
Disinfects and accelerates germination with a 0.05% solution of chlorhexidine digluconate (other names “Sebedin”, “Amident”, “Hexicon”). When using chlorhexidine digluconate (from a pharmacy), the seeds are immersed in an undiluted solution for 30 minutes and then washed.
After this treatment, the seeds are placed in a warm place between two layers of thick gauze or planted in prepared soil.
Is it possible to collect seeds from pepper hybrids?
Despite the fact that hybrid varieties (with the F1 symbol on the packaging) are distinguished by their productivity, resistance to unfavorable conditions and diseases, they have significant disadvantages: high cost, inability to collect seeds.
Those. Technically, of course, you can collect the seeds, but they will not sprout. Plants grown from hybrid seeds do not retain their parental properties.
General recommendations
Pepper is a self-pollinating plant, but cross-pollination of different varieties growing nearby is possible with the help of bees and bumblebees. Therefore, plants of different varieties are insulated with non-woven material or the buds are wrapped in gauze.
Interesting! There are peppers that do not cross-pollinate with other varieties, for example, Rocoto hot pepper or pubescent pepper (Capsicum pubescence).
Read also:
Why is it worth growing hybrid pepper "Atlant".
Conclusion
Thus, it is not difficult to obtain high-quality seed material if you follow the selection rules listed in the article. Do not take pepper seeds that have the symbol F1 in their name. They will not retain their parental characteristics.
When growing different varieties of peppers where pollinating insects are present, consider how to limit their access.
Watch an interesting video on how to prepare seeds: