New Seed- Saving technique
for chillies and peppers.
Teaching how to save seed at home is an important part of our work, and we've now sent out 65,000 sets of instructions for this. It's great to hear back from so many of you who are keeping your own seed now.
If you haven't tried it yet, do have a go. You just need to read our leaflets to be sure that the varieties don't cross, and do check out the instructions for drying your seed properly. If you just air-dry it it will suffocate when you put it in a sealed container.
One thing that always causes questions are peppers and chillies. People usually grow several different sorts, but they all cross like mad, so if you want to keep your own seed, this is a problem. You don't want giant chillies or sweet peppers the size of a pea the next year!
We now have a new method to show you , that lets you keep pure seed even if you are growing several types of pepper/chilli in the same greenhouse.
You will need:
- some sandwich-bag twist-ties
- an old pair of tights
- a sewing machine
- scissors
- tiny clothes-pegs, used for craft and 'scrapbooking' (look on ebay, about £2 for 100)
Sew across the tights and cut apart to make small insect-proof bags. |
gather your tiny clothes-pegs and twist-ties |
Now choose the best plant , and find a pepper flower that is going to open the next day . |
put the flower in the bag and peg it closed so no insects can get in |
Once the flower has set (5 days or so) remove the bag and label it with a twist-tie. Not too tight, the stem will swell as it grows. |
The marked fruit is the one to keep seed from - it will not have crossed with the others as no insects could get to the flower. Remember though that the seed is no good until the fruit is red-ripe. |
Remember, this is really easy BUT it only works because you are using Real Seed. You can't keep seed from F1 Hybrids! (Which is why we don't sell them) |