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David Hare-Scott[_2_] · 11-09-2013, 11:50 PM posted to rec.gardens.edible

wrote:
Pepper seeds in particular. I harvest my own seeds from grocery store
peppers and the ones I grow. Are the seeds from 2011 still going to
be viable in January when I start my plants? I will have some from
this years crop but I think I may have waited too long and will not
have all the varieties.
Thanks
MJ

You can find tables of expected viability by specie on the web. This is
probably a maximum and doesn't take into account if all the seeds were ripe
when you picked them or if your storage conditions were appropriate. Also
the expected lifetime is not a sudden end, the proportion of germination
will decline with age progressively. If you have a hundred seeds you have a
better chance of getting 5 to grow after 3 years than if you have only have
ten. In any event there isn't much you can do about it now.

As for this year's crop, in what way are you too late? Even a stunted late
season fruit on a dying frost-struck plant that you wouldn't eat may yield
viable seeds provided it reached maturity.

David