I bought 3 very large sweet peppers at the grocery store...red, yellow, and green..Can I save the seed and grow my own from these peppers? I have always either bought the plants or the seed.. How well will they germinate if I can plant the seed? Thanks.

-- Lynn(MO) (mscratch@semo.net), February 04, 2001

Answers

I doubt if they will grow anything because they are picked inmature. dale

-- dale (dgarr@fidnet.com), February 04, 2001.

If they are hybrids you may not get the same product. The red one is probably a green sweet pepper gone ripe. You can try, but there are no guarentee. I'd play it safe and get some seeds.

-- Ardie from WI (a6203@hotmail.com), February 05, 2001.

Plant them thick in a cut off milk jug or pot. I have had luck with store bought squash of all kinds and some hot peppers. Do both the store bought and seeds. You may not get the exact same kind that you bought, but I love to experiment. Sounds like fun! I planted some peach pits from an Elberta peach tree and everyone teased me about it. A horticultural "expert" told me it wouldn't work....HA! We moved and I always wondered what happened after that....We went back for a wedding and stopped by to see the 6 little trees....they are now at least 10 feet tall and she said that they had so many big peaches that she was selling them! So....who knows!

-- Nan (davidl41@ipa.net), February 05, 2001.

Plant 'em! What have you got to lose? I've planted all sorts of seeds from grocery store produce ~ sometimes I get the exact same thing that I got the seeds from, sometimes I get a different size or color fruit, sometimes they don't germinate at all. If you HAVE to have red, green and yellow sweet peppers, then buy some seeds specially for those types. If you don't care and just want peppers, whatever the color, plant those seeds from the store-bought produce ~ you just may end up with all three colors! For the colored ones, leave them on the plant for a good while after it looks like they're picking size. They reach their full size and THEN become fully ripe and turn the bright colors over a week or so. Bright red, yellow and orange ones do start out green, then turn colors as they ripen 'til they are fully colored. However, green sweet bell peppers if done the same way will only turn an ugly mottled orange/red/brown color.

BTW, I plant all sorts of things from the grocery store ~ garlic, ginger root, horseradish, etc. Sometimes it's worth it, sometimes not quite. A couple of things that are worth it are tomatoes and beans/peas. When I was growing up we always bought our seeds for pinto beans, black-eyed peas, navy beans, kidney beans, etc., from the dried bean aisle at the grocery store. They germinate and grow nicely! As a matter of fact, when we were planting a garden for Hubby's mama a couple years ago, she came out of her house with some dried pinto beans that were meant for eating and said, "Can you plant these?" I grabbed them quick and said, "Sure!" Hubby looked at me kind of funny. We had enough to plant her garden and ours as well. Those beans produced more per plant than anything we've ever planted! And talk about flavor! YUM! Great either snapped or shelled. We've saved seeds each year and continue to plant "Mama Bee's Pinto Beans."

And tomatoes: Unless they're a potato-leaved variety (something you probably won't know until you grow the seeds out), a certain type of currant tomato or a certain hybrid, tomato seeds will always come true as they are self-pollinating and the flower structure is such that it prevents 99% of cross-pollination. Saving the seeds is easy ~ whir the seed filled pulp in a blender with some water until it's mashed to tiny bits. (You can do the whole tomato if you'd like, or just squeeze out the seeds and eat the meat of the 'mater.) Set aside somewhere out of the way for a few days 'til fermentation occurs ~ it's needed to dissolve the gelatinous sack around each seed that inhibits germination. Add more water, stir, let settle and the good (viable) seeds will sink to the bottom. Pour off the pulpy, moldy water. Rinse this way a couple more times 'til you have nice clean seeds at the bottom.

-- Wingnut (wingnut@moment.net), February 05, 2001.

Well, I planted them yesterday and will await the results...just maybe they will amount to something.

-- Lynn (mscratch1@semo.net), February 09, 2001.

Hi; I have never had any luck with regular store-bought produce but when I get organic (I live on organic; boy do I drive a long way to get it, too) sometimes I have luck with the seeds. I suggest, overplant very much & see what you get. I do suggest, though, that when you know what color you are planting, plant them at the far points of your garden. One year I planted a pretty row of sweet bells, all different colors. Make nice pizzas, right? No way. They all cross-pollinated, I guess, even with the nearby jalapenos - they were more often than not brown and a bit spicy, not really sweet, having strange flavors. Oh, say one plant would make a green bell, a green with half red, something that looked like a dark purple (which was pretty but tasted lousy!) and a few brown ones that were indeed crunchy but gosh, they looked awful!! -Helen

-- Helen Schesniak (applebake@cybrzn.com), February 10, 2001.