seeds Yet another seed question....

[Zodiac_Speaking]

On my "Jalapenos" thread, you guys said the pepper needed to be red in order for the seed to be viable. My question > I am growing *HUGE* Habaneros and I believe I have been making a mistake re: seeds.

When the habs are turning from green to yellow to a dark orange / not red..... I pick them and leave them sitting on my counter top on top of a paper towel. I will flip them / rotate them daily for about 3 days until they are a nice yellow / dark yellow / slight orange color. I then slice them and dehydrate them. I saved the seeds this last go round. Will *THOSE* seeds be viable or should I wait until a few Habs get nice and dark yellow / slight orange color on the plant before I pick and then save those seeds? Surely those will be viable, no?

 

[CaneDog]

Letting a pod ripen fully on the plant should give you the greatest probability of viability and the highest percentage of viable seeds within the pod. I usually let the pods I'm using for seeds get fully ripe in order to be on the safe side. However, the ones you're harvesting orange likely will have some viable seeds and perhaps even good percentages. Why not test plant a few of the seeds from those pods now and see if they sprout - kind of like what bigger seed companies do. If so, chances are good you have plenty of viable seeds in the rest of them. If not, let a few go all the way before you harvest them and use those for seeds.