Seeds from this years supermarket fruit

[Caithness Gardener]

Anyone had success germinating seeds from the supermarket. Was planning to do it with melon - chances are the fruit itself has been chilled during storage so it may have aged already. How fresh can you get away with?

[Don Vincenzo]

Seeds from this years supermarket fruit

Anyone had success germinating seeds from the supermarket. Was planning to do it with melon - chances are the fruit itself has been chilled during storage so it may have aged already. How fresh can you get away with?

I grow peppers, tomatoes, chillies, garllic and this year I am having an attempt in growing melons all these from supermaket fruit or veg. Germination rate 7/10 for melon and higher for the others. Don't worry about freshness, just choose a nice fruit, scoop the seeds out, wash and dry them and they are ready for planting. Regards
Don Vincenzo

[lyndap]

I've got pumpkin seed growing from supermarket saved seed.100% germination. Might of been beginners luck.

[eskymo]

Can you do this with peppers and chillies too as I've had no success germinating a batch of old seeds and we eat so many fresh chillies and peppers and all those seeds just seem wasted.

I might try it with the seeds I would normally discard tonight.

Any tips on what to do. Should I dry the chilli seeds or can I just plant them up?

[smallblueplanet]

Thing is supermarket produce probably uses f1 seeds so you're not sure what you're gonna get from the seed. With stuff like melons too it might be better to look for seeds that have as short a fruiting time as possible. Afterall we're not exactly blessed with the sort of weather melons usually like.

Perhaps it might be better finding out the type of pepper or whatever and then buy seed? Good luck with the germination trials though.

[shine388]

i planted some (about 35) cherry tomato seeds from a tescos chery tom (didnt take off the slimy stuff just put them straight in) thinking they wouldnt grow, i now have 35 cherry tom plants that are doing exactly what my alicante toms (seeds from a packet) are doing and they look really healthy im trying peppers and raspberries at the mo as well although i dont have much hope. i planted some melon seeds a few years ago that were from a tesco watermelon but they got too tall and fell over so i'm trying a different type of melon now as i bought a small plant from a garden centre at the weekend

[Don Vincenzo]

Seeds from this years

Can you do this with peppers and chillies too as I've had no success germinating a batch of old seeds and we eat so many fresh chillies and peppers and all those seeds just seem wasted.

I might try it with the seeds I would normally discard tonight.

Any tips on what to do. Should I dry the chilli seeds or can I just plant them up?

I usual dry my seeds first but perhaps you can try with some fresh and some dry. Three years ago I bought some fresh mixed chillies and from some of their seeds I raised few plants. From them I got enough to supply me and close relatives with fresh chillies, drying some and making 1 gallon of chilly oil. But I have to mention that in order to achieve that the plants have to be in a cool greenhouse as growing them outdoors as peppers, aubergines and melons is a gamble. Don Vincenzo

[pigletwillie]

Tomatoes are easy to grow from supermarket seed and generally stay true to type. Chillies however are very promiscuous and whilst you will get plants, what fruit you get will be to a certain extent a bit of a lottery. Still very useable but not necesarilly true to type

[lyndap]

With supermarket sweetpepper seed, I just rinse under tap, then plant straight into 3in pots of compost(usually pop into poly bag on windowledge to germinate).The ones last year grow ok and tasted nicer than the original!!!

[Alice]

I'm growing some garlic from cloves taken from a supermarket bulb. Looks as if it's getting on great.Will let you know and if crop is a success will be growing much more next year.

[millie]

Anyone had success germinating seeds from the supermarket. Was planning to do it with melon - chances are the fruit itself has been chilled during storage so it may have aged already. How fresh can you get away with?

hi last year i grew melons from the seed i got from a supermarket melon. i grow these in the ploytunnel and they did very well

[blackkitty]

I've grown loads of tomatoes from supermarket ones. I used to just plant a tomato that had gone slightly squashy and I always got loads of plants and fruit. This year I planted some baby plum tomatoes that I liked but have bought seeds because supermarket varieties are quite limited. I also have lots of plants from a red pepper and will see what the fruit is like. I never buy seed potatoes but plant any that start chitting when I forget about them.

[Alice]

After reading all this have planted some sweet pepper seed so will report how it goes.

[gcroft]

garlic

I'm growing some garlic from cloves taken from a supermarket bulb. Looks as if it's getting on great.Will let you know and if crop is a success will be growing much more next year.

be careful using shop bought garlic bulbs as they can often contain eelworm which you will introduce to your garden its always safer to buy proper bulbs from seed sellers same applies for tatty's

[darlochileman]

Hi Eskimo,

Any tips on what to do. Should I dry the chilli seeds or can I just plant them up?

If you avoid the F1 hybrids which can produce very mixed results (which includes most of the dutch bell pepper varieties now on sale), seeds taken fresh from pods and then planted should be fine.

Tesco now have a good selection. Several of my friends have had great success with Tesco's Scotch Bonnets and Thai Hot peppers (both nice and hot!)

My partner in crime wrote a beginners guide to growing chile peppers which you may find useful

http://www.thechileman.org/guide_beginner.php

Mark