Red (bell) pepper

I saved seeds out of a red bell pepper that I purchased at the grocery store. Will the seeds grow?

Chances are, they will grow. A red bell pepper is simply the mature form of the green ones. You may not get fruit exactly like your parent pepper as the odds are good it was an hybrid and won't reproduce true. Peppers also cross pollinate easily, so depending on what was growing nearby, you could get quite a few different looks or tastes.

Good. Thanks for the information.

caganimalover,

I did this exact same thing with a green bell pepper from the store. I ended up with several plants. A few red, a few yellow. Some grew nicely, but not very large... some were malformed. So, I kept the seeds from the ones that I liked from those plants. Am planting them.

One thing I learned. If you want the seeds to be true to the plant... separate the plants or they'll cross pollinate... and so I'm told will produce peppers with mixed seeds. Also, the bell peppers grown for the stores are hybrids. They have crossed and crossed and crossed to produce plants that will produce the best peppers for selling. The peppers may contain seeds that are a form of the parent plants... again... so I'm told.

Just thought I'd share the info with you cause I'm always walking around in the produce section with my eye out for things I can grow from.... :)

Take care,
Donna

You know Melody, I always wondered if the green and red were one of the same. Thanks for clearing that up for me :o)

Connie

So the green bell pepper as it matures goes from GREEN to YELLOW to ORANGE to RED??? So how is it that each color that is in the store may go bad, but doesn't change color, cause it's not on the plant?

You know cagan, I have never seen my green ones turn yellow then orange, only red. hmmmm

Connie

That was my thought; so, how do they get yellow and orange ones?

no clue :o) Oh Melody lol

Yes...the peppers need to still be on the plant to mature to their "end" color.

Some peppers start out green and mature to red. Others start out green and mature to "golden" or "yellow". Other may start out green and mature to "lavender" or "purple". And some will start out green and end up as "chocolate" colored.

Then again, other may be green a day or so after they are begatted but then go directly to Purple or Lavender (The variety "Islander" comes to mind.)

Once they are picked you won't see them change color because they are no longer maturing and will stay fresh for a while then go into their rotting stage.

If you want to save seeds from store-bought peppers, do so. Grow them out and have fun with it, you'll never know what you'll get sometimes! And if you get something you like, rogue out the dislikes and save seeds from the ones you like...you may end up, eventually, with an OP variety that will come true. And remember, while growing them out they need to be highly isolated or grown with bagged blossoms to prevent even more crossing.

Hope this is helpful to you!
Shoe.

Shoe to the rescue ;o) Thanks, Connie

You're welcome, ma'am! Hope you had a nice Thanksgiving Day!

Shoe.

Oh I did shoe and did you fix turkey this year? Hope it turned out for ya ;o) *grinning from ear to ear* lol

I put a post up in the Michigan forum...

Connie

Thanks shoe!

I've been dealing with Lisa and her big move from LA to KY and haven't been around much for the past couple of days.

HI, Mel!

I've been thinking of Lisa/Family quite often today! Have been wondering how things are going and hoping all is well. I sure am grateful they have you to take care of them! Hope you post an update when time allows.

Connie, yes, I cooked a turkey this year, and it turned out FULL size! Musta been cus my DD helped me! (Just now finished having some leftovers of it and have the carcass simmering in a pot of water, making good stock out of it!) Yummy!

Shoe.

Thanks for all the good information. Now we know the facts. I saved seed from a red, green, and gold/yellow.
Any chance they might grow and develop fruit during the winter if under long hours of close flourescents? ~~~ Carol

You'll get something...but not like outdoors in a garden. Peppers need a full spectrum of light to properly bloom and fruit....but you will get blooms and some little peppers. They'll probably stop growing when they get to the size of a large marble. They won't mature enough to get viable seeds.

Some of the smaller hot peppers tend to make nice windowsill plants and will make pretty little peppers though.

Do you think they would be large enough (although small) to eat? I would prefer to grow my own even if small assuming they would be even a quarter the size of a store bought one. What if I put various spectrum flourescent lights over them?

caganimalover,

I don't know if this holds true for bell peppers or not, but I do know that some plants will grow just fine under flourescent lighting, but will not bloom. Bell peppers may not bloom. You can always try it and see. However, it is said that if you want certain plants to bloom... use grow lights. Grow lights are a bit expensive I think.

This is just from what I know from some other plants. May or may not apply to Bell Peppers. In any event, like I said above, I've done the same, taken seeds from a store bought peppers.... and I'd like to know what you do and if it works or not.

And I also have a question, are the Bell Pepper plants annuals or perennials?

Take care,
Donna

I think I'll try a few under both regular flourescent and try to find a reasonably priced grow light too for a few.
I would be they are annuals. ~~~ Carol

I would thing they are annuals as well... I have a few outside and a few in the green house. Wondering what they will do....


Donna

Bell peppers are Capsicum annuum...they are annuals...there are other species of peppers that are perennials.

Pepper plants will bloom indoors....if you have some transplants that are a bit late to get set out, you'll discover this....I'm not sure if growing bells indoors will get fruits that are very edible though...the pepper walls will be thin and most likely not very tasty. Very few fruits per plant and tiny. If you've got the room and the lights, it wouldn't hurt to try though.

Actually peppers are perennials (but only in their home neighborhood!) You can keep peppers alive and producing for quite a few years, what kills them are cold temps. They are considered semi-tropicals and as long as the low temps don't zap them they will survived for quite a long time.

If you want to grow them thru the winter they will stay alive if protected from killing frosts and low temps. If you want them to produce fruit you'll need to provide them with very warm temps, extended daylight hours, and preferably they'll need as many hours of natural daylight as possible so they get plenty of the "red" spectrum of light rays. Fluorescent lights only supply certain colors of the light spectrum and that is why there are special "grow lights" that are made to give off other colors. However, if your pepper plant(s) gets a judicial amount of real Sun light then that should be good for the red spectrum, then you could supplement the rest of the hours needed (after sundown) with the fluorescent or other grow lights.

Hope this isn't confusing.
(Will come back later to check for typo's and such...gotta run for now!)

Shoe.

quickly edited! :>)
Sorry Mel...I didn't take into consideration the "annuum" part. Thanks! Good info!
edited again...I just keep thinking...
for many years peppers were in my mind as perennials due to their origin (tropics). I've kept them alive in my greenhouse thru the winter (they didn't do anything but live, most likely cus I wasn't growing them for fruit). Looking in my books, and the 'Net, I see that many places actually do consider them perennials.

Melody, do you think the term "annuum" might refer more to the fact that they produce fruit in the first year, rather than they give up at the end of the season? Wonder where the 'annuum' came from if they are considered perennials by many folks?



This message was edited Nov 25, 2006 9:57 PM

Shoe,

Do you think that the lighting often used in producing art would also work well for plants?

Such as, "Lumichrome Full Spectrum Fluorescent Lamps" shown here:
http://www.dickblick.com/zz551/11/

Or the "Daylight" lamps... shown here: http://www.dickblick.com/zz551/63/

Just curious as to what you think. Seems to me they would work well for plants... but I could be wrong.

Take care,
Donna

Donna, I've never seen those "artist" lights, but I like 'em!

And yes, it says (in the first link you gave) that they offer both the red and blue spectrum, and that is what plants require for balanced growth. Plants get a balanced red/blue light from natural sunlight so those artist lights also offer the same. (I can't see any info as to how much strength they offer so that may come into play regarding how far the plants need to be from the light source to benefit from it. At the price of the lamps I think it came out to $14 per bulb and considering how long fluorescent bulbs last that may be a good deal.)

Bottom line, plants need both red and blue light spectrum. Those lights provide both (as does natural daylight). (A standard incandescent bulb will provide the red spectrum but considering that it also throws out lots of heat, too much for plants, it has to be placed farther away from the plant and in doing so it reduces the amount of red light the plant can get. )

Donna, if you see "grow lights" advertised anywhere, I bet they would be close to the same as the 'artist lights" since they both seem to offer both color specs.

And now, "disclaimer"...I'm by no means a light expert (don't believe in experts anyway!) but just know that when I researched grow lights for my greenhouse several years ago I became familiar with the light spectrum. I read about metal halide vs high pressure sodium etc and what each offered...it got so interesting to me I had to read more! And so, I learned that, for me, sunlight is the best but if you want to supplement it during the winter make sure that you imitate the sun and offer both blue and red for proper plant growth.

As an aside, Donna, are you an artist? If so, hope you post some of your work on DG! I bet we'd all love to see it!

Shoe.

A "red" spectrum can be achieved with a grow light? What about a reptile light?

Shoe,

Yeah, I like those lights too. I think they would be great for art or plants.... from what I can tell. But alas I have no banister to even put a bulb like that into. Cause knowing me... it would need to be as portable as possible. I'd like to move it around a lot ... or ... have several!! Heck... let's just do the entire house in them along with some portable ones I can take out to the green house. I like a lot of light.

I dabble in art. Graphite and colored pencils mostly. (I try to stay inside the lines :) ). I haven't done anything really in about a year.... as I have been so busy with plants and such. As well, my desk has become very cluttered with plant literature. I need to clean it off so I can begin to draw again, it's time. I'm not a great artist by any means. I also love photography and will be entering the contest.... but my drawings have not been plant related really in the past. I wish I could paint. I might give that another shot in the near future... I have all the materials.... just didn't work out and I got frustrated with it. Colored pencils are very nice... some look like paintings. I've seen some colored pencil art that looked just like photos. Amazing. I do it mostly for myself.... not to sell or anything like that.

Take care,
Donna

thanks, Donna....I hope you find time to enjoy drawing again. I know what you mean, things get in the way of us wanting to do something but we just don't seem to take the time. Boy-howdy do I know what that's like!

caganimalover, I think those reptile lights are more like heat lamps and will most likely burn your plants up. I use those red lights for when my chickens have hatched and need the warmth.

Shoe.

No, not red lights, UVB & UVA flourescents. My understanding is that the flourescents normally put out UVA rays, but reptile lights also emitt UVB rays for vitamin D absorption.

Cool. I'm not at all familiar with reptile lights. Seems to me if they offer vitamin D, like the sun offers it, that would be something even people could benefit from, eh? As for plants, I just don't know what end of the light spectrum those offer.

Maybe someone else knows?

Sorry.
Shoe.