Hot Pepper Seed Storage:
Most peppers will only keep their viability at room temperature for 1-3
years. The exception is the Capsicum pubescens group of Manzano and Rocoto
peppers which have black seeds and thicker seed coats, and can last 4-6 years.
There's several ways to keep your pepper seeds longer--but first I'll list the
fastest ways to kill your peppers seeds:
TOP 3 FASTEST WAYS TO KILL PEPPER SEED GERMINATION:
1.) Store them at room temp. in any of the following places:
(a.) Anywhere near the floor and 3 feet off the floor (where moisture
condenses).
(b.) In an unheated building or outside (shed, etc.)---no moisture control.
(c.) In a cupboard or drawer, that doesn't get good air circulation.
2.) Store them refrigerated or frozen, and open the container before the seeds
reach room temp. and when they are still cold (moisture condenses on seeds).
3.) Store them in plastic or a glass jar, and don't have a way to tell if there
is moisture still in the seed, like indicator silica gel.
Jars and plastic zip lock (I personally like the Hefty Freezer brand) are great
but you need to put a slip of newspaper in with the seed. If you pull out the
newspaper, and if it is not crispy-dry, you need to dump out both the newspaper
and the seeds out onto a paper plate to dry in the sun, to drive off excess
moisture.
Label and date your seed stocks. Properly dried seeds in jars or Freezer zip
locks even at room temperature will probably give an extra year to your seed's
life, and refrigeration may keep your seeds for 5 years or more.
REMEMBER--All peppers are perennials, and make nice house-plants if grown in
potting soil in 2-3 gallon plastic pots, and taken indoors when the nights drop
into the 40s. Move plants outdoors when nights go back into the 50s. Plants will
live for several years that way, most will stop growing in the winter and lose
most of their leaves, but will leaf back out in spring.
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