Red bell peppers

Maybe not a very smart question, but I have to ask..lol I took seed from a very sweet red pepper and they are sprouting, do I need to put them into pots to grow them? Will they grow good peppers, since they are from one my DH got at the store? Can I plant them into the ground now? I just have no clue. I usually buy the plants and plant them. Also, I have yellow straight neck squash, is it too late to plant these seeds? How long till they produce? How much space will they need? Thanks for any help you have!
JanetS

Janet,
The peppers from the store are usually hybrids and their seeds will grow into the qualities of one or more of the parent plants. You may get good peppers, and you may get some that are not so good. Give it a try if you have the room. As far as planting time goes, follow whatever schedule is appropriate for your USDA weather zone. I'm quite a ways north of you and my peppers won't go in the ground until at least Memorial Day weekend. Good Luck.
Duane

You can start seedlings in small cups with potting soil. Most of the time, you will get good peppers, albeit an unknown cultivar as the seed will be an F2 hybrid. As for yellow straight neck squash, it is approaching time to direct seed them. I will put in my summer squash next week. On the average it takes from 6 weeks to two months to harvest and they will produce for close to a month.

Awesome, thanks so much for the help..I will put them into cups and see what happens, and then into pots in a week or so.....since I am North of you, I can do my squash in a a couple of weeks I guess...that is great news!

Janet - one of the best peppers i ever grew was from seeds saved from a store bought red pepper. I hope you are as fortunate!

I started my tomato, pepper, and eggplant seeds a couple of weeks ago and the peppers are just now coming through. Tomatoes are going gang-busters, and there's narry a sign of eggplant on my horizon! Hopefully they'll be popping through sometime next week.

Happy gardening!

I tell you the truth...this was one of the BEST tasting sweet red peppers I have ever had...so I thought..WHY NOT..I took the seeds wrapped them in a paper towel put them in my microwave which is over the stove...and has the light on all the time...and in two weeks I have sprouts..so I hope they taste really good too...lol I love to use them in salads, and the sautee' them with other veggies....

I love the red bell peppers, too. I like their flavor better than the green peppers. Hoping to grow some this year in the strawbales.

Lana

Last year I planted out a pepper plant started from seed saved from an especially sweet red pepper. The results were good, to a certain extent. On the whole, peppers don't seem to thrive here in my location. I get a few but rarely a plant just loaded with fruits. You have nothing to lose and it's always fun to experiment.

Ditto here, Rose! If I get half a dozen peppers on a plant, I feel blessed. Probably should just buy them and save the space for tomatoes, but there's just something special about home grown! And Lord knows, I LOVE a good experiment!!!

Sequee, you're known as an experimenter here on DG. If there's a new or unusual plant, we all know you'll be the one trying to get seeds and give it a try. And then we get to hear about it, which we all love. Keep on truckin' ...or should I say keep on growin'! :-)

Ok. I collected, rinsed, and dried the seeds from the last storebought green bell pepper I bought. So, If I plant these seeds, I should have a good shot at getting bell peppers growing? And, is it too late to plant these seeds or should I try to keep the seeds til next Spring?

Thanks!

P.S. I didn't even think about just buying a red bell and doing the same thing. I actually LOVE the red ones much better than the green. I think I'll stop on the way home. They are MUCHO expensive down here!!

Well mine are growing and now have bloosoms! Can't wait!

Gymgirl,

Green bell peppers are immature peppers and their seeds probably won't sprout. Most, but not all, bell peppers are green and turn red when ripe. These are the ones you should save seeds from. ☺

No way! That is just not right...so we pay 1.99 for a green one and if it is ripe we pay three times that..LOL

Supply and demand. Green Bells are still predominanty the main use in this country. Ripe bells were unheard of a few years ago and are just catching on. As they become more popular the price will come down. Now they are mostly produced by green house growers.

That is just amazing news...lol I am thrilled though, because as stated above...the ripe ones do have the BEST flavor..lol Thank so much for the education, I love learning new things. I do recall that the first plant I purchased was just labeled bell pepper and I do remember the peppers that I didn't check during the end of the season, did have some red on them....I just thought they were special...had not idea I was taking them before they were ready! LOL

Red, yellow, and orange bell peppers are the best, but they are $3.99 EACH here. I don't buy many at that price. To get the colored ones are the reason I am growing bells this year. My plants have several peppers each on them. I am anxiously waiting for them to turn color. If growing them works okay, I'll be planting many of them next year, including enough for green ones, too. The green ones are $1.99 EACH here, and that's still too high. They freeze very well.

A volunteer popped up in the pot where my Bird of Paradise is planted. It now has 3 peppers on it. I'm curious to see what it turns out to be -- probably red.

Farmerdill: What's the difference between an F1 and F2 hybrid?

Karen

An F1 is the first generation cross between cultivars X and Y. It will be a true hybrid with uniform characteristics ( cultivar A). If you save and plant seeds from cultivar A ( 2nd generation F2) you will get a mix of cultivars A, X, and Y. Its not quite as simple as those Punnett squares that use to be taught in high school biology but that is a good illustration.

Okay, so the Yellow and Orange are differnt cultivars from the Red/Green...right?

It's amazing to me how many people don't know a green bell pepper is an immature pepper. I must admit I was one of them up until last year and then I learned either here on DG or one of the books I've read about how they grow.

At farmers markets I tell people that and they think I'm kidding them. Most every Pepper I took the last few markets were green because I had pulled everything off all the plants. I started telling people these same peppers would be red, yellow, orange if I gave them more time and they looked baffled. One lady asked me if she should let it set on the windowsill awhile like a tomato... I told her to enjoy it and come back and get a red one in 2 weeks.

Jeff

Yes , bell peppers are available - Green to red, Green to Yellow, Green to orange. They are also available as purple to red, cream to red and other variations.

LOL, well, I can tell you a cute story...I told my grandchildren I would make then homemade french fries instead of the frozens one, which I didn't have, to go with their hamburgers, and they were baffled...they said "how are you going to "make" them, I said of course, from cutting up potatoes...and they looked at me like I was crazy, and then said, you mean french fries come from potatoes! LOL Imagine their surprise when I told them chicken strips come from chickens! LOL

Wow. I would like to grow the purple to red just to see that! LOL

Here is the list! http://davesgarden.com/pf/advanced.php?nn%5B1%5D=0&nn%5B2%5D=0&nn%5B4%5D=0&nn%5B82%5D=1&nn%5B83%5D=1&nn%5B84%5D=0&nn%5B85%5D=7&nn%5B86%5D=0&nn%5B87%5D=0&nn%5B88%5D=0&nn%5B9%5D=0&nn%5B23%5D=0&nn%5B10%5D=0&nn%5B12%5D=0&nn%5B18%5D=0&sname=Peppers&Search.x=26&Search.y=17 I like Lilac, Shoe is high on Islander and I am sure others will chip in with their favorites.

I am going to try the purple and lilac to red and the cream to red next year. I like all bells, but especially the ripe ones because they are so sweet. Next year there will be many colored bell plants pumping out expensive fruits for my freezer. LOL.

Farmerdill: Thanks for the explanation of the F1/F2. As I understand what you are saying, the F1 hybrid is the one that you would be purchasing in the market. The F2 would be the one you produced from the seeds of the market-purchased one. Correct?

Karen

right

Farmerdill: Thank you !!