habman said:
If I order seeds online and they arrive in the mail and sit outside for 6-8 hours in -20 Celsius will they still be good or dead?
Does it affect germination time ?
I'm thinking about getting the 48 seeds special from Tony. God knows what I'll do with more seeds. If I planted all the seeds I have, I'd have enough peppers to give a good painful butt burn to the entire population of Mexico city.
Habman,
This isn't my specialty, but here's my experience with the same scenario a couple of winters ago.
Question though and possibly a dumb one. Are the seeds already dried? If they are already dried in order for the seeds to actually freeze, the moisture content of the seed must be less than 8%, otherwise the frozen moisture causes the seed to crack.
If they're cracked you're hooped but I'm sure they are dried and sealed well.
I have stored dried pepper seeds in a freezer for 6 years and still had around 80% germination.
It depends on the types of pepper seeds as well. These were Manzano, Rocotto and Tepins.
One thing if there are frozen, bring them out of the cold or out of the freezer and let them sit unopened until they reach room temperature if the are vacuum sealed.
If you don't left the inside and side packaging warm to room temperature the moisture from freezing will condense on the seeds and you can bugger them up big time.
Like I said, not my field of expertise, but that's my experience with frozen seeds limited as it is.
I haven't had time or space to grow on a large scale for a long time, but I'm thinking of planting my Dorset Naga and Jolokia seeds this spring. Could be fun.
