Learn how to save chili pepper seeds from your garden-grown peppers so you can store them and use them to grow peppers the next season.
As a chili pepper grower, you may want to save the seeds from your current batch of chili peppers rather than purchase new seeds each year. Saving seeds also saves money, and ensures your harvest will include your very favorite peppers from season to season.
Luckily for us, chili peppers lend themselves to easy seed saving. Harvesting the seeds is a simple process, and they require very little effort to dry and store.
The only major issue to consider, however, is the possibility of cross pollination from other peppers in your garden.
Pepper plants can cross pollinate, so if you do grow multiple peppers in your garden, you’ll want to take steps to limit cross pollinating.
Cross Pollination
You may be familiar with the idea of cross pollination in the pepper world with hybrid peppers, like many of the superhot varieties. The concept generally means that genetic material from one type of pepper plant will exchange with another.
This genetic variant will not show up in your current plants, but may show up in future generations grown from those seeds.
This is a highly popular method for creating new pepper strains with new and interesting characteristics, such as thicker pepper walls or greater heat.
If you want the same peppers from year to year, it is best to not save seeds from cross pollinated pepper plants.
If you are growing plants for seed, then grow them at sufficient distance from one another, or better yet, use specialized netting to protect them.
Note that not all chili pepper species cross pollinate. Annuum will cross easily with Chinense, sometimes with Baccatum and Frutescens, but not with Pubenscens, which generally does not cross with any other species.
If your goal is to grow seed and sell them commercially, you will need to isolate your plants by type and take steps to ensure no cross pollination occurs.
If you are simply growing a home garden, you may not care what types of peppers you get, and it might even be fun to grow your own hybrids.
Regardless, the process of saving pepper seeds for growing later is the same.
How to Save Chili Pepper Seeds for Growing
First, cut into your fresh peppers to expose the seeds. Use only fresh, healthy, mature peppers, which is very important.
Mature seeds are hard and dull white in color, where immature seeds are softer, bright, glossy white. Only mature seeds are viable for saving for future growing.
Next, clean and dry the peppers. Cut them open and remove the seeds. Some seeds are easier to remove than others. Bell peppers, for example, are quite easy, as the seeds are prominently located at the top of the pepper.
Smaller peppers, including superhots, aren’t quite as easy to remove, though still aren’t that difficult.
There are techniques, such as finely chopping or processing the peppers then mixing them with water in a bowl, allowing the seeds to sink to the bottom, but use whatever is easiest for you, whether that is using tweezers or just chopping and removing the mature seeds.
Just be sure to wear gloves when handling hot pepper pods.
Next, spread the seeds out on a flat surface indoors and away from direct sunlight in a well ventilated room. There should be no humidity.
Do not use paper plates or paper towels, as the seeds will clump and stick to them. Ceramic or coated plates work well, or even cups.
Allow to dry for 2-3 days, or up to a week. Shake or flip them each day to ensure even drying. They will be ready when a seed is brittle and breaks rather than bends when pressure is applied.
You can also use a dehydrator to dry the seeds, though temperature is very important.
Do not exceed 95 degrees F. 85 degrees F is ideal for drying pepper seeds for growing.
Best Pepper Seeds for Saving
You can save seeds from younger pods, but you will have more success from ripe chili pepper pods. As a best practice, let some pods grow on the plant until they become fully ripe, and even start to wrinkle a bit.
Remove the seeds and dry them per the instructions above.
Can You Save Seeds from Store Bought Peppers?
Seeds saved from store bought peppers, like bell peppers and others, aren’t likely to sprout because of the picking timing and the way they’re grown. You can try it and the seeds might sprout, but it’s unlikely.
It would be best to get viable seeds and grow them, then save those seeds from your own garden grown plants.
Storing Your Dried Chili Pepper Seeds for Growing
For longer term storage, store the seeds in airtight containers. Be sure to label them with pepper type and dates. For shorter term storage, many people use baggies or envelopes, which work as well.
Store them in a cool, dark, dry place, such as your cupboard or refrigerator. The refrigerator is the best for storage.
These seeds will be viable for approximately 2 years, though it is best to use them within a year as the genetic material can degrade and the likelihood of non-sprouting increases with age.
Learn more about growing chili peppers here - A Guide to Growing Chili Peppers.
Additional Information
- Learn More about Preserving Chili Peppers
- Learn More about Growing Chili Peppers
- Check out our Chili Pepper Recipes
Also see:
CJ Plourde says
I grew some red chilies from seeds I had saved and planted four pots. They grew well, bright leafy little burgers, but they have oriented knjy 4 peppers…and the ,title white flowers onky aloes red around the 4th month. Sadly, I have to Kant them indoors, with grow lights, but given that the seeds were harvested from dried, store bought Mexican chillies, I guess I should be lucky they produced at all. I am going to buy seeds next time, and this has been a great learning lesson.
Paul:-) says
Hi Mike,
I had limited success a few years ago growing a plant which produced about a dozen fruits that I’d grown from the seed of some unspecified “red” chilli that I had bought at the local Supermarket.
Given where we live and our often dull and damp weather I was quite chuffed with myself for a while!
As I think I told you I have various plants around the house.I just hope I can keep them alive till the new season!
Paul:-)
jeffrey palmer says
What would be the shelf life of super-hot or reg chili's? I have ghost left over from 2023 (dried ; not heat dried) from last year. Is it worth it to harvest seeds from whole fruits? My crop of ghost this year was very bad. Last year was Mind-boggling.
Mike Hultquist says
You can try, Jeffrey, though seeds from fresh pods really are the best to use, if possible.
Bob Martin says
Mike, another item to factor in is if the variety you are saving is open pollenated or hybrid. Hybrid varieties may pose a problem as the parents may originate from completely different types of plants. You may end up growing a parent that won't bear any fruit whatsoever. Just make sure you are saving seeds from heirlooms or open pollenated varieties and you will be fine.
Mike H. says
Thank you for the input, Bob!
Lyne Noella says
Thank you for sharing your knowledge -- I do have favorite plants that would be wonderful to duplicate.
TIm says
Thanks again Mike. Cool article.
Mike Hultquist says
Thanks, Tim!
Doug says
Thanks for the information. Very informative and very well explained
Mike Hultquist says
Thanks, Doug. =)
Josie Magistro says
Hi Mike! My dad used to let hot hungarian banana peppers ripen to red then he used to hand-tie them by the stem together and hang until dried out. He would then use the seeds. Worked every time. Your thoughts?
Thanks!
Mike Hultquist says
Josie, yes, this is a great way to dry them, but it only works in warm, dry climates. If there is too much moisture in the air, the peppers can easily rot.
Erik says
Hi Mike, a really quick question...
If the air is humid, would drying the seeds on ceramic plate I tubs with food grade desiccant work? (Like the moisture absorption packets)
Michael Hultquist - Chili Pepper Madness says
Erik, I haven't tried that, but I think it could help considering the moisture.
Alan Thompson says
Sowed Jalapeno and Habanero seeds this year. Very early spring in Western Australia).
Probably 80% success rate with Jalapenos but the Habanero's have been very poor. Very few seeds actually germinated and most of those that did lost their leaves after a couple of days.
Same soil, same position, same watering regime.
Do Habanero's need a warmer start?
Maybe I should have planted them later?
Michael Hultquist - Chili Pepper Madness says
Alan, it could just be the seeds. I have variability each year with different plants. Pretty annoying, tbh.
John Shotsky says
I save seeds every year. I usually just cut the top out of the pepper, stem and all, with the seeds mostly attached to the seed 'ball'. I put that into a paper coffee filter until the seeds can be 'rubbed' off the core. Works well, and give a high germination. I store them in Stamp envelopes, which are designed to block out humidity. Easy to write on, and very easy to store.
Also, last year I planted a whole seed section from a store bought habanero into a red cup. I got over 50 plants. The red cup looked like a microgreens planting.
Peppers do not ripen after picking. (They might change color, but they are not ripening, just as strawberries do not ripen after picking.)
Green peppers are unlikely to have viable seeds, but ripe peppers (red, yellow, etc) should sprout just fine. To find out, just plant a few seeds and mark them while drying the rest. You will know in under a month whether they are viable or not. Because I can't usually find Manzano pepper plants locally, I save my seeds from store bought Manzanos and plant them every year.
Plant a whole store-bought habanero in a cup to see what can be done.
James says
Mike,
In my previous comment I mentioned thechileman.org. I just noticed that they are no longer hosting the seed exchange. Maybe something you might want to pick up? Ha!
Thanks!
James
Michael Hultquist - Chili Pepper Madness says
Sorry to hear, James. Oh boy, that would be a hard resource to duplicate!
James says
I used to get my seeds through a seed exchange (thechileman.org). If you have a few seeds to trade you can always swap with other hot pepper growers. Good place to get some of the more exotic peppers.
And, Mike, thanks much, I do enjoy the weekend emails.
James
Michael Hultquist - Chili Pepper Madness says
James, there are a lot of great Facebook groups dedicated to growing and seed trading. I would check those out.