using seeds from grocery store produce?

[JennieMig]

I got some fantastic but expensive orange, yellow, and red peppers while grocery shopping. Can the seeds from those veggies be saved and planted? Will they each grow the same color pepper that they came from? How to I store them?

Thanks in advance

[HydroCura]

I once bought from a grocery store too. And they grew the same as it is on the pack.
Store them in a plastic bin. Not too hot, not too cold.

[cynthia_h]

Sometimes the bell peppers are a different variety; sometimes they've been allowed to grow longer than we usually let them, and that's how they can achieve different colors.

If the pepper is a different variety *and* is not a hybrid (boy, THAT is a small probability, for sure), the seeds 1) might be fertile and 2) might give you identical fruit. However, growers are sometimes guarded about this very possibility, and take measures to reduce the germination rates of the seeds.

The more likely possibility, though, is that the peppers *are* hybrids. This means that the parent plants aren't orange / yellow / brown / purple bell peppers, but some other color or combination of colors. If you save the seeds (and be sure to save them in a cold, *dry* location; moisture will rot them) from hybrid peppers, get yourself into an "experimental" state of mind: the state where one says to oneself, "OK, let's perform an experiment and find out what kind of plants these peppers came from."

That way, when non-orange/yellow/brown/purple bell peppers grow, even at full maturity, the "experimental" gardener isn't disappointed, but rather entertained!

Happy gardening!

Cynthia H.
Sunset Zone 17, USDA Zone 9

[annastasia76]

I saved some of those seeds from some peppers I bought last year, unfortunately they didn't grow for me, but that being said it was still a bit too early, so the might grow, I haven't tried planting again yet.

[Father's Daughter]

I'm performing one of those experiments with seeds from peppers my husband bought at Trader Joe's. It was right about the time I was getting ready to start my peppers, so I thought, why not give it a try! The peppers were red, almost a foot long, but had no information on the package as to what they were. The seedlings are growing at the same rate as the other sweet red peppers I started, so I'll probably put a few out in the garden and see what I get.

[TZ -OH6]

I grew out seeds form a small nearly seedless pointed orange sweet pepper last year and got a range of productivity values, some plants were loaded and some were sparse. There were also differencese in seedyness, and shape with some plants having bull nosed (bell) shaped peppers. I doubt that you would see that much variation in seeds from a large bell peppers, other than productivity differences.