FarmI wrote:
At the end of last summer, the chilli plants were just abandoned and
left standing where they were planted. Because we aren't big chilli
users, the plants still had quite a chillies left hanging on them and
there they stayed till recently.

In the past few weeks I've been clearing up and preparing that bed for
spring and noticed that the chilli plants were particulalry
interesting. Hanging off the chilli plants that had long thinnish
chillis (cayenne??) were old fruits that had stayed there all winter
in the cold and frosty conditions and all colour had gone from them
as had all signs of flesh. I had a bit of a chuckle because the
skins looked a bit like condoms. Inside them were lots of seeds. The
little birds eye chillies too had lots of seeds (I think I used
about 3 of them in the time they were growing - what a waste of
grwoing space!).
Anyone like to take a guess and say what they think the chances of
these seeds being viable? The look OK and are in good condition
visually. I intend to take a punt on growing them when the weather
finally warms up enough, but don't have any idea at all if they will
grow or not.

I would say the chances of some of them (say more than 20%) being viable is
excellent and unless a fungus has damaged them you might find it is quite
high (say 80% or more). Definitely worth the punt especially if you only
need half a dozen of each to grow.

David