I was slicing a red pepper for a salad last spring when I stopped and looked at the pile of seeds on the board. There were easily a hundred of them, and all of them were heading for the bin. That felt wasteful, so I dried a few on a paper towel instead. By the end of the summer I was picking peppers off a plant on my balcony that started out as ordinary supermarket produce.
Can you grow bell peppers from store-bought peppers? Yes, as long as the pepper is fully ripe. Scoop the seeds out of a red, yellow or orange pepper, dry them for a few days on a paper towel, then sow them six to seven weeks before your last frost. Seeds from green peppers usually fail, because that fruit was picked before the seeds finished maturing.
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Start With a Fully Ripe Pepper
Green peppers are not a separate variety. They are the same fruit picked early, before it has colored up, and the seeds inside are still immature. That is why they so often refuse to sprout. Red, yellow and orange peppers stayed on the plant longer, so their seeds had time to finish.
When I buy a pepper to save seed from, I pick the deepest colored one on the shelf.
Saving and Drying the Seeds
Cut around the stem and lift out the whole core. The seeds sit in a cluster there and rub off with your thumb in seconds. Spread them in a single layer on a paper towel somewhere dry and out of direct sun.
Give them about a week. A dry seed snaps when you press it, while one that still bends needs longer. Damp seeds go moldy in storage, so this part is worth the patience. Mine go into a paper seed envelope with the date and the color written on the front. To know what you are working with first, test a few with the paper towel method.
Sowing, and the Long Wait
Start six to seven weeks before your last frost date. I sow two or three seeds per cell in a seed starting tray, cover them with about half an inch (1 cm) of soil, mist the surface with a spray bottle so the seeds stay where I put them, and set the tray somewhere warm.
Warmth matters more than light at this stage. Pepper seeds germinate fastest between 80 and 85°F (22 to 29°C), and on a cool windowsill they can sit there doing nothing for weeks. Even in good conditions they take two to three weeks, so do not give up on a tray that still looks empty after ten days.
Moving the Seedlings Into Their Final Pot
Once a seedling has a few true leaves and the nights have warmed up, it moves outside, into a pot or grow bag of at least 3 gallons (10 liters).
What goes in the bag matters more than the bag itself. Garden soil packs down hard in a container and leaves the roots with nowhere to breathe, so start with a bagged potting mix instead. I make mine up in a bucket before planting: four parts potting mix, one part perlite for drainage and one part compost for feeding. Stir it dry, then add water until a handful holds its shape when you squeeze it and nothing drips out. Fill the bag and leave about an inch (2.5 cm) at the top so watering does not spill over the edge.
Water it in well on planting day, then keep the soil evenly moist. Peppers want six to eight hours of direct sun, so mine sit on the sunniest side of the balcony.
Flowers, Fruit and When to Pick
Small white flowers turn up about a month after transplanting. Pepper flowers pollinate themselves, so you do not need bees on a balcony, though a gentle shake of the plant every few days helps things along.
The first pepper is usually ready 80 to 110 days after transplanting. Where you land in that range depends on your conditions, how many hours of direct sun the plant gets and how healthy it is. Mine took close to the full 110 days. You can pick it green, but green is the least mature stage and tastes sharp and a little bitter. Leave it another two or three weeks and it turns red, yellow or orange and gets noticeably sweeter. That wait is the whole reason I grow them.
One Thing Worth Knowing About Supermarket Seeds
Most supermarket peppers are hybrids, so the plants you raise from their seed will not always match the parent. Mine came out slightly smaller and thinner walled. They still tasted good, and there is something satisfying about eating a pepper that started as kitchen scraps. For the full growing routine, see my guide to growing bell peppers in containers.
FAQ
Can you grow bell peppers from green store-bought peppers?
Usually not. Green peppers are picked before the fruit ripens, so the seeds inside have not finished maturing and rarely germinate.
How long do store-bought pepper seeds take to germinate?
Two to three weeks at 80 to 85°F (22 to 29°C). Cooler soil slows them down considerably.
Do pepper seeds need to be dried before planting?
Yes, if you are storing them. Dry them for about a week, until they snap instead of bending.
How long until you can harvest?
Usually 80 to 110 days after transplanting. The exact timing depends on your growing conditions, how many hours of direct sun the plant gets and how healthy the plant is.
