Can You Grow Peppers From Pepper Seeds?

If you've got an organic pepper from the farmer's market or grocer, you may have wondered whether the seeds are viable for growing your own...

Pepper Seed Viability

Pepper seeds are usually most viable when picked at botanical ripeness - a point slightly beyond where you'd normally pick a pepper for eating.

When peppers are ripe enough that their seeds will germinate, they're generally somewhat wrinkly and a little mushy. Ideally, peppers are picked a couple weeks after the point where they're best for eating.

Once they go a little soft and lose their crunch on the plant, that's the time to pick peppers if you plan to save their seeds to grow.

Can You Plant Bell Pepper Seeds?

It's unlikely that the seeds from a bell pepper you bought are going to grow a pepper plant.

As mentioned above, most peppers that are harvested for food are not quite mature enough to be harvested for seed. That is to say if they're picked at food-ripeness theyre probably not botanical ripeness (viable seeds for growing).

I've personally composted the seeds and core from many hundreds of peppers and very few of those seeds ever sprouted in my compost. The germination rate has been so low that planting any of them would almost certainly be a waste of time - planting hundreds to get possibly only a sprout or two.

That said, there's little harm in trying. Burying a pepper core with seeds is a trivial matter and the worst that will happen is that it will add some nutrients back into your soil and not sprout. Either way, you're better than where you started.

If you make good compost you know it creates the perfect environment for lots of seeds to sprout, so you can compost all your peppers seeds like I do and check for sprouts in there. If you're lucky you may get a pepper sprout or two every so often.

Just remember here that the beller peppers you buy from the store are generally hybrids and not likely to be true to seed. You may get peppers which don't look like what you ate, or you might get freakazoid plants. Finding out is just part of the fun!

Are Green Bell Pepper Seeds Viable?

Unfortunately, green bell pepper seeds are not generally viable, as the fruit was picked before peak ripeness.

Also keep in mind that peppers produce sexually and may not be true to seed, especially if they're a hybrid variety. You may end up with fruits that are similar to the parent fruit, but they may also be wildly different.

If other peppers were grown nearby, the chance of them crossing and producing an unexpected hybrid is high.

Final Thoughts...

All that said, trial-and-error is the guiding principle in the garden. I encourage you to try things that you aren't sure will work. That way you can make your own observations, and draw your own empirical conclusions.