HelpfulGardener.com

Hello everyone.

This may be a silly question, but I can't seem to easily find an answer without asking...

I dried several types of super-hots in the oven a few months ago. I have them stored whole, in air-tight mason jars, and they were dried at 200-225°F on parchment paper.

Can I use the seeds to grow more plants in the spring, when I break them open? Or does the heat from the oven kill the seeds?

Thanks,
Chris

I have never tried germinating seeds that have been dried at that heat, but since ones dried at much lower temps do not germinate (I had a dehydrator that was around one sixty, and that killed them), I doubt that those will.

Peppers air dry very well, even in my humidity so I have never dried them in the oven. Oven drying has to be at a temperature of 100 degrees for 6 hours or approximately what it would be on a hot day in summer. If the temperature exceeds that it is recommended to dry the seeds in the shade. The inside of my car exceeds that and I use it to dry pepper pods for eating later. We discovered that trick accidentally when red peppers were left on the dash of the truck at work. The dried peppers were even hotter than fresh.

https://www.ext.colostate.edu/pubs/garden/07221.html

You can try but I doubt that your seeds are viable. Too much heat. When I harvest seeds they are allowed to dry at outside temperature. No where near your temperature range.