Pepper Seeds

I purchased dried peppers in cellophane bags at the local Mexican market and am wondering if the seeds contained in these will grow if planted? These are labeled Guajillo, Puya, and New Mexico varieties. I have to make my own Chili powder because most of the commercial varieties contain cumin, which I am highly allergic to. These are the peppers I have been using in the mix I am currently making but was hoping I would be able to grow my own from now on.

Ypu should be able to.

Viability factors will depend on how
old the peppers are and whether they
were air dried or dried using artificial heat.

Good luck !

Why would you want to do that? Hot peppers come in hundreds of named varieties.
Most seed is very cheap. 30 or 100 for a buck or two.
Also a lot of the catalogs list socville units.

Double use of the product CG- if you dont grind seeds then you would have some to try to plant. Another problem with the seeds from store peppers is if the seeds had time to mature before going to markets. If they didnt mature fully, they wont be capable of growing.
Pepper seeds of those varieties can be found reasonably cheap though Tennessee soils will be different and your plant may not taste like those sent up to Tn... Just saying

CG - these are what I am familiar with and what I have been using. Also I live in a very small rural community and these cultivars are not available locally. I was hoping to find a trade in the trading forum but so far no luck.

Have you been to the Pepper Joe site? Its in Garden Watchdog and you might like the stuff he has..

seedsofchange.com has a bunch of peppers as well. I am fond of seedsofchange myself, but usually if they dont have a particular pepper they can advise you where to find them, or even order them for you...

Pepper Joe doesn't have these. I don't necessarily want HOT I want flavor. Once hot gets in my mouth I don't notice anything other than pain.

Ok, did some quick reading. Puyo is an area - not necessarily a pepper itself. Guajillo peppers are an anheim class of pepper that grow up from their branch and have a largish pod. New Mexico varieties are probably cayenne, and Ancho, and Poblano types.

You can actually find information on the 'Puya' cultivar at http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/87378/ and 'Guajillo' at http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/85466/
Our only local access to plants here is Lowe's and WalMart and they will sell plants labeled "New Mexico" but it's anyone's guess as to what they may be.

I tried growing some peppers last year from dried pods purchased at the grocery store--zero germination. My guess is that the pods were dried in hot air and that killed the seeds. I'd be very interested in knowing if your attempt is successful.

IMO, a great chile powder mix is guajillo and ancho. You can add New Mexican (Anaheim) too. All are generally not too hot.

Tomato Growers Supply, Baker Creek, Seed Savers Exchange, and Cross Country Nursery all carry a lot of chile varieties.

This message was edited Mar 2, 2014 5:30 PM

Last year our Habanero seeds did not germinate very well. I bought plants labeled Habanero from a high end garden center. The plants were not Habanero, so we had none to sell last year.
Here is a good source of pepper seed. If you can't find your variety there, it probably doesn't exsist.

http://www.reimerseeds.com/

As for the best chili pepper for chilli is Thai Hot or Thai Super Hot. Both have remarkable flavor. Use them wisely & there won't be a lot of heat.
We chop them in small pieces, put on a cookie sheet, freeze them & then put them in a container. You take out only what you need.

Depends on what the local farms are sending them- here it is Bonnie's or Color Spot. I see Greeneville- up in the ridges along the eastern continental divide. Actually drove thru there a month or so ago heading toward SC.
Reimer does have a bunch of peppers- and I like that place too.

I live about 60 miles from the area well know for New Mexico Peppers " Long Green Chile from Hatch New Mexico" I myself have planted seeds from these dried pepper seeds from several burlap bags I go every year to pick up from the Hatch Chile Festival. Both fresh and dried ones are offered. Around 3 years ago got a very good flavored one, one of the best in my 60+ years living here. Saved thousands of the dried seeds to plant the following year. Grew very beautiful plants but the production was poor and tasteless. So I do not know if this was a bad year or bad seeds.

Probably a hybrid so they didn't come true.

New Mexico peppers probably refer the peppers that were bred by the University of NM Im not sure if that is the exact name but there are a # of different peppers that fall under the name New Mexico. You may want to post your question in the pepper forum.....

The folks from the U of NMS claim that all "Anaheim" types (typically long and not real hot, your standard green chile chiles) should be described as "New Mexican". NMSU also has a number of named varieties that are called "NuMex"_____, i.e.,Numex Suave, Numex 6-4, etc. They encompass a wide variety of chiles, not just New Mexican. Note: it's spelled "chile", not "chili". Chili is a tasty stew that upsets Texans if its made with beans. lol Or, ncredbird wants to make pure chile powder as the cumin in the chili powder causes trouble.

Good catch, Kittriana. A typo on my part--after going to such great pains to distinguish between "e" and "I". In my mind, a stew is pretty much anything mixed up in a big pot and simmered for a long time. I agree chili isn't typically thought of as a stew.

This message was edited Mar 4, 2014 2:18 PM

Chili is the Tx - it isn't stew tho- mostly meat, tomato paste and secret ingrdients, different beans can be used- like kidney, or pinto, but we prefer our beans as refritos and seperated. Yummmm, the chili cookoffs are comin with spring get togethers, and outdoor music...many dont like cumin, I do, my dau doesn't. She used it right tho chili powder, the peppers are chile-