Growing Chili Peppers from store bought Peppers

The one thing about having a passion is that it tends to rub off on others too. I remember the day that my wife looked over at me and mentioned that she would like to grow some chili peppers. Not just any chili peppers, the exact varieties she had been buying from the store to make salsa (California, Japones, & Arbol for anyone keeping track at home). That was all I needed, I was off to the races researching how to grow chili peppers, and where to get the seeds she wanted. Our next date night, (yes, I often drag my wife through garden centers on our romantic date nights, she is very patient and understanding with me) we went to the store to buy the seeds we needed, we were able to find all but one variety, and in the middle of searching my wife asked if the seeds that are in the store bought chili peppers would germinate. I didn’t know, but was up for the challenge and for saving a buck on store bought seed. We put all the seeds back, and decided we would give it a try.

The chili peppers we had are dried, which added a little uncertainty into whether or not the seeds would germinate. I know from composting that if seeds get too hot, they die, and not all drying processes are the same. I was hoping that the chili’s had been sun dried, and not dried in an oven that would kill the seeds. There are many techniques to start seeds, but hearing that chili peppers can take up to 6 weeks to germinate, I wanted to know as soon as we had germination. It was already the middle of planting  season, and I didn’t want to wait 6-7 weeks just to find out that it wasn’t going to work. I broke open several chili peppers to harvest the seeds. Laying them out on a damp paper towel with enough space between them so that I could transfer them later without disturbing the root growth, I wrapped them up and put them in a Ziploc bag and hung them in my kitchen window. Then I waited…not too long as I get antsy, I think I checked them after 24 hours…yep no germination yet, LOL. About a week later on a hot sunny day, I realized the bag might be getting too hot. Fearing that I had cooked the seeds, I added some more fresh seeds to the mix, and moved them to the adjacent wall. The wall I chose is an external wall that heats up during the day from the sun beating down on the outside, but it doesn’t get direct sunlight. That seemed to work, after about 2.5 weeks we had germination. Realizing I didn’t have any pots, I confiscated some of my daughter’s old fairy gardens (I had to promise I would give them back) and very carefully transplanted the seeds and marked the containers with the varieties. You probably should cut around the seeds to minimize disruption of the roots. I didn’t do this as I had way more seeds than I needed, and some were just starting to emerge from the seed casing so that the disturbance would be minimal. I used some organic potting soil and transferred around 14 seeds from each type of chili pepper. Two per drilled hole, about 1/2 inch deep. I’ve been hand watering to keep the soil moist, the small terracotta pot dries out daily, which is probably why those seeds are lagging, although I still see the sprouts emerging, so I am holding out hope.

About a month into the process, and so far so good, as the seeds have continued to grow. Here are a couple photos of the sprouts emerging from each of the containers. I plan to transfer the two strongest seedlings to their final home, once my wife decides how she wants to display them artistically in the yard. And so begins the exhausting internal struggle on what to do with the seedlings that I don’t need. Usually I find somewhere else around the yard to plant them.  After all this time I have grown too attached to dispatch them to the compost heap. I’ll keep you updated on the next transplant.

For more information on growing Chili Peppers see my growing guide here.