Allotment Gardening Advice Help Chat
Growing => Grow Your Own => Topic started by: ches on January 02, 2020, 16:15
-
Good afternoon all.
I am storing some harvested chillis in the freezer. Would I be able to de-frost the chillis, extract the seeds and use these seeds to grow a plant this year?
Thanks.
Ches
-
Some seeds like a period of chilling, but I'm not sure about chillies, given that they come from a hotter country.
You've got nothing to lose by trying it with one chilli, I suppose. You could put the seeds on damp kitchen towel to watch for germination, and plant up if/when they do germinate?
NB. If the chillies were an F1 variety, the seedlings will not necessarily be like the parent plant.
-
As Yorkie says, nothing to lose by doing a test germination, although not having been dried before freezing they may have been damaged by ice crystals forming inside them.
-
Morning all,
The plant was a gift last year so i'm not sure as to the variety. I have taken two from the freezer and will carryout a germination test this afternoon and i'll let you know.
-
I'm sure the seeds will be fine for planting (and probably the better for their period on ice). There is a big seed bank in Antarctica where they chill the seeds to -18C to slow deterioration:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Svalbard_Global_Seed_Vault
-
There is a big seed bank in Antarctica...
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Svalbard_Global_Seed_Vault
Wow, that really is very cool. No pun intended. I was recently reading about old crops that we used to grow, as a species, but later moved away from because of various factors, and other crops that are essentially extinct due to animal preference... migration patterns, finding a new plant to eat that was sweeter, etc... really interesting stuff. But then again, I only started growing last year, so I'm still in awe of how fast Mizuna grows, haha. ;)
-
I'm sure the seeds will be fine for planting (and probably the better for their period on ice). There is a big seed bank in Antarctica where they chill the seeds to -18C to slow deterioration:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Svalbard_Global_Seed_Vault
I have heard of this previously. Its facinating.
-
Has anyone started growing seeds yet ? or is it to early :)
-
Not yet....but i'm itching to get started.
-
I've started mine. I have 20 or so in a propagator at the moment (with lights), but I might loose these because of bad compost. (see seed compost thread). I have only started the really hot ones though and will be starting the fairly hot ones shortly.
-
I've started mine. I have 20 or so in a propagator at the moment (with lights), but I might loose these because of bad compost. (see seed compost thread). I have only started the really hot ones though and will be starting the fairly hot ones shortly.
I don't have the advantage of lights unfortunately
-
I'm going to get my superhots sown this week, I usually direct sow into compost in a heated propagator but cant remember how deep... is it about half an inch?
-
I do mine closer to 1/4". As long as you have a loose potting mix, it probably doesn't matter too much.
-
I've started mine. I have 20 or so in a propagator at the moment (with lights), but I might loose these because of bad compost. (see seed compost thread). I have only started the really hot ones though and will be starting the fairly hot ones shortly.
I don't have the advantage of lights unfortunately
If you don't have grow lights, I would hang on until the end of the month at least. The really hot ones take the longest times to mature and the others are a bit more forgiving, but leggy weak plants are not ideal either way.
I have this set-up, which I got a present. It doesn't hold a huge amount, but it is a simple way to have a grow light set-up indoors without too much mess or fuss.
https://www.suttons.co.uk/Gardening/Gift-Ideas/All-Gift-Ideas/Grow-Light-Garden-_595430.htm#595430
Before that, I used the windowsill and just waited until February to sow. Pinching out pepper and chilli plants works well as well. If you take the growing tips out, they branch and then you get a much more productive plant :)
-
Perfect,
Thanks for the advice shoots. I was considering getting a heated propagator until I just checked out that link. Which would be the better investment?
-
Just come through. No fancy grow-lights or heated propagator. Just a Tesco plastic bag. Save your money.
-
I think perhaps the lights are to stop them growing leggie. Having no lights but a warm windowsill I will hold off to the beginning of Feb, and try to remember that tip about pinching them out to encourage side shoots
-
I think perhaps the lights are to stop them growing leggie.
A bit of aluminium foil is sufficient.
-
I think perhaps the lights are to stop them growing leggie.
A bit of aluminium foil is sufficient.
It is true and I use cardboard lined with foil behind the trays lined up on my windowsills later in the year. I do find the grow lights useful this early in the year though. Even with the foil backing boards, seedlings will lean to the light on the windowsills, but my house is a pretty old and the windows are not very large.
I also have a heated propagator which sits on a windowsill. Again, you can manage without, but it does give more reliable germination which I find useful, especially with some seeds, that can be expensive. I don't heat the greenhouse, so really early sowings are limited to onions, aubergines and chillies/peppers.
Perfect,
Thanks for the advice shoots. I was considering getting a heated propagator until I just checked out that link. Which would be the better investment?
If the grow lights are just for a few chillies, I would say that is a luxury. You can get by and sow a little later, especially if you are not growing the super hot ones. You might use a propagator a lot more, but bear in mind that those seedlings then need somewhere to move onto, so don't get too carried away. I've done that before believe me :lol:
Put the grow light garden on your pressie list and cross your fingers ;)
-
I've sown 12 Trinidad Moruga Scorpions in a seedling tray with cover and nothing else, then when I get my heated propagator out of the loft, I'm going to do some in that and see which do the best. Obviously the plain sown one will have a weeks head start...!
-
The TM Scorpions just plain sown in a normal seed tray with clear lid on in the house have just started to poke out of the soil (3 of 11 sown) so I make that 8 days from sowing to showing for the first few. They look a very pale green though, must be the light deprevation. Will post how many show out of the 11. Will be interesting to see if the heated propagator seedlings can make them germinate any quicker...
-
They look a very pale green though, must be the light deprevation.
They should recover quite quickly if you get them onto a windowsill with a tin foil reflector behind it. I have no big picture windows and only a few on the sunny side of the house, but tin foil comes to the rescue, even if I still have to turn plants round regularly.
I find chilli seeds are not so fussy about a heated propagator, but aubergines tend to sulk massively without one. I don't keep my house heated that hot, so that might be a factor though :unsure: Most seeds seem to say 20ish degrees C and we don't like the house quite that warm. Mine gets a decent amount of work over spring for bits and pieces, including some flower seeds. It is a long thin type that sits on a window sill and did come with little trays with plastic covers. I tend to use small pots and plastic bags on it though. It does mean I don't have to choose though between giving them a bit of heat to get the remaining seeds going and then light for any that have germinated :)