A seed company told me not to save seeds.

I thought i hit go so if this is a double post please excuse me.

A emailed a company to find out if a certain pepper they offer was a hybrid and this was there response.

"yes it is a hybrid. However, if you grow more than one variety of peppers at a time you shouldn't bother saving the seed as they will cross pollinate anyway."

Is this true? I dont have time to bag every blossom on every plant. That is over my head for my little garden. So i guess i will just have to pray that the seeds i grow will be available when i want to buy them.
Michelle

Michelle, If it's a hybrid, forget saving seed. Chances are strong that they will revert to the parent or other variety. Not worth the effort.
Open pollinated varieties will work OK, though. I think.
If your supplier drops them you may find them somewhere else, especially if you ask around here on DG.
What variety are they?
Andy P

No she told me not to bother saving any pepper seeds if i grow more than one variety that are open pollinated. I didnt know that peppers cross pollinate so easily.
so i will have to just wait. I was asking about Hungarian semi-hot and the one listed was called Hungarian Super. I wanted to buy open pollinated so i could save the seeds.

I just do not have the time to bag blossoms. If I can I will have a couple across the street on my open pollinated ones if i want to save the seed.

If you really want to save seeds, I'd try to find an heirloom variety you like. That should keep them from reverting back to the parent plant. As for cross pollination, if you are only growing one kind of pepper, it is not an issue. If you are growing more than one, keep the separated out... containers are a find way to do that. If they are on opposite ends of the yard, or front yard and back yard, cross pollination is less likely.

Cross pollination between peppers is almost a certainty if they are anywhere near each other...500 feet is reccomended. The pollen is not windborne, it's insectborne. And insects love pepper blooms...unlike tomatoes. Front to back yard is probably ok for seperation...especially if you have some sort of 'barrier' plant that the insects will visit in between. But if you are planning on trading seeds with others, you might want to go a little farther.

What I do is bag the plant. Peppers will pollinate themselves, as they have perfect flowers with both the male and female parts on the same flower. I have giant tulle bags that I pop ove the pepper plants when they start to bloom. I mark several branches of unopened blooms with yarn. (do this before you bag) I leave the bags in place for a week to 10 days and let the blooms on the selected branches bloom and pollinate themselves inside the bag. After that, you can remove the bag and use it elsewhere, or save till next year. Some folks will just bag certain branches...and I do that with larger plants and other species of veggies...either way is fine. Just remember that whatever you mark your branches with needs to stay visible for the whole growing season...I use red yarn.

The bags are made from the thinnest bridal tulle and I just sewed them up on my machine, but Remay or anything that lets light and moisture in, but keeps bugs out is fine.

I usually mark a good number of branches at the time to assure myself of getting plenty of peppers. This isn't a big deal to me anymore, and I save pepper and heirloom/OP seeds from many different species of plant.

For home use, you can isolate with barriers and you may have a few 'surprises' here and there...but for trading purposes, peppers are so prone to being crossed, I would advise going the extra mile for pure seeds. Someone once said 85% of the peppers in a garden get crossed in a season...I'm not sure how accurate that is, but I do know that a great number will be.

WOW thank you so much for all that info. That sounds easy. I will do that on the plants i want to save seed from. Thank you for the lesson. Just slip the tule right over the plant. i can even do that. :) i really do want to save my own seed. But of course i want to make sure they are true.

Thanks for everyone's reply.

Michelle

Peppers are so prolific, you don't need to save the seed from every one...and if something gets crossed, the genetic difference is in the seed, not the fruit...so, you can grow hot and sweet peppers side by side, and you won't have any problems with your harvest...but you will need to make sure that you only plant the seeds from the marked peppers the next year, or your bells may have a bit of a bite.

Have fun! Seed Saving is a great adventure!

500 feet apart!!?? Hard to do on a 50X100' lot.

OTOH, it should be possible to bag some of the blossoms - I like the suggestions of bagging a small branch.

Melody -
Out of curiosity, how big are the tulle bags you made? Would the same process work with doing toms? This will be my first yr to save tom seeds.
Thanks, Suzi :)

The tulle bags are a great idea! One might check the newspaper for recent divorces, then purchase those not so nostalgic bridal veils! Tulle, tulle, and more tulle!

Hmmm I was thinking that should be able to find reasonable at cloth store, or possibly at summertime yard sales. Was just wondering how much to get. ~ Suzi :)

It's been years since I bought tulle. I think the fine tulle would be much better than the widely spaced stuff. One could probably use row cover, as well.

The tiny stuff is best. No chance for insects to get in and out. Row cover is great too.

The tulle I get is 60" wide and I just double it for pepper bags. Sometimes my plant is too tall and I just bag whatever part of the plant I can.

I've found it's easier to bag individual tomato trusses rather than a whole 7' plant. A bag a foot long and a foot wide is ample for that.

Be sure to give each bagged plant or truss a shake each day to help move pollen around. With the bags on, not as much wind gets through to shake the blossoms.

My grandmother used to take her broom to her tomato plants and give them a light 'beating'. Said she got more tomatoes...she probably did. Same principle, but she didn't realize she was helping pollinate.

For tomatoes: fine tulle bags 1'x1', got that. I was already told that need to save seeds from at least 2 of the same variety for seed diversity.

Have Carolyn's seed starter guide. Plus Dave's and Horseshoe's guides to fermenting + saving seeds.

What else do I need to know +/or do to save tom seeds this year? Links would be great too...

Help greatly appreciated!! Thanks in advance!!

~ Suzi :)

read
http://www.theseedsite.co.uk/

Wal-mart has tulle bags in the bridal section that are about 12"x6"..a dozen for $4 and change. They've got a ribbon closure and a long tulle 'neck' that makes a ruffle when closed. I'd cut the extra tulle off and make sure that I don't tie the ribbon too tight. After it's rained on and dried out a time or two it will be hard to untie. Squirt the ribbon with water before you untie it and it should be easier.

These will easily bag a truss of tomato blooms or a pepper branch...ready made and cheap.