Carol,

I've grown several mini-peppers over the years, but don't know if they are similar to the ones at Sam's because I haven't looked at the ones at Sam's.

I've grown the Mini Bell Mix from Totally Tomatoes and the various mini bell peppers available on the Seed Savers Exchange website. All the ones I've grown were classic mini bell peppers with the blockier shape, so they probably were different from "Yummy", which I think is classified as a non-bell sweet.

All the mini bell peppers I've grown did fine in our climate and tended to produce usable peppers in late June or early July from a late April planting. To me, that's the advantage of growing them.....they produce very early in comparison to most standard bell peppers which may or may not produce a summer crop, although they surely do produce a fall crop.

As far as what you'll get from saved seed, the answer is that you won't know until it grows. (smile) Personally, I am convinced that many of the so-called hybrids are not really hybrids and that saved seed from them will give you crops VERY similar to your original vegetable from which the seed was saved. Often, in the F-2 generation, you'll see little variation at all. Because peppers and tomatoes both cross-breed so easily, though, sometimes you get tremendous amounts of variation and gene segregation from saved seed.

The 'Merced' tomato is an example of a hybrid that seems to come true from saved seed. Once it was announced that the breeder, which I think was Northrup-King, was no longer going to produce and market seed of 'Merced' a lot of hot climate gardeners who relied on Merced for July/August tomatoes began saving seed from the tomatoes they were growing. They found their saved seeds gave them F-2 and F-3 generations that seemed identical to their original Merced tomatoes. Bill P. (aka Gone Fishin') was one of the folks who saved Merced seed and he felt like his F-2 generation was virtually identical to the original plant. So, for those folks like him, saving the seed for their own personal use paid off because they still could grow a tomato that performed really well in their climate. You might get the same results with seed saved from your peppers, but you might not.

When you save pepper seed, how true it come from seed often depends on what grew nearby....in terms of other peppers. If you are saving seed from a commercially-grown pepper, I think the odds are more in your favor because it probably grew in an area where rows and rows (if not acres and acres) of the same pepper were grown by a large commercial grower. So, I think it is less likely that you'd get crossed seed from it. On the other hand, if you saved seed from a home garden and your particular pepper had 8 other sweet peppers, for example, grown in close proximity to it, then there's a higher chance you might have crossed seed.

My peppers often reseed in the garden (and I let a few peppers stay on them in the fall for just this reason) and, most of the time, the volunteers that come up in the spring are virtually identical to their parent plant the previous summer.

I think you have a good chance of getting good peppers from those seeds you're sprouting.

Dawn

Thanks Dawn - I took the seeds out of the pepper that I was using fresh so it had not dried at all. I saved them in the event that I couldn't find seed from a seed company. I have four little pots in my kitchen window that are supposed to be for african violets but I don't like them for that, so I just keep them and root things there occasionally. I was really just trying the seed to see if a fresh seed would produce a plant. I think I put four seeds in, and I can see the beginnings of three plants. I guess if they continue to grow, I will have to find a place to put them and try to keep them going until summer.

Gonefishin was quite the gardener and since he was also so good with computers, he just made everything so easy to understand when he posted. I miss seeing his contribution.

I love the little peppers, and they are so sweet and crisp. My daughter's family was here at Thanksgiving and I had sliced some up on a relish tray. That night, they found the remainder of the bag that I had stored in the bunkhouse refrigerator. They were taking them out of the bag and washing them and eating them for a late night snack.

My closest Sams is in Joplin so I only go every 4-6 weeks, but I always look for them. It only takes me 45 minutes to get to Sams from my house, and there was a time when I went about every other week. When the gas prices started to escalate, that was a trip that I just cut back on. It just makes me angry to pay those kinds of prices....so I don't play. I may not be punishing anyone but myself, but it just seems like the right thing to do.

Have you started your broccoli yet?

Carol,

I really miss GoneFishin' too, and I just tell myself that he is gardening (and fishing!) in a better place now. : )

Our closest Sam's is in Sherman, although the ones in the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex are larger and have a better selection of merchandise. We usually go down to Lewisville or Grapevine once or twice a month and go to Sam's or Costco, or both, depending on what's on our "list". I have a large pantry under the stairs, so I can buy a lot at one time and store it for quite a while.

I haven't started my broccoli yet and am very undecided about what to do about the spring garden. With so little moisture falling, and the drought in southern OK slowly deepening from "mild drought" into "moderate drought", the little voice in my head is telling me to wait and not start anything too early. Our rainfall this winter (and, for meteorological purposes, winter begins Dec. 1st) is about 10% of our usual rainfall for the same timeframe in an 'average' year, and I know it will be hard to have a veggie garden if that trend continues. I know I need to decide soon just what I'm going to do because seed-starting time is about here. Have you started the seeds of any cool-season crops yet?

Dawn

No, but I am sure wanting to. LOL I think I have only planted broccoli twice since I have lived here, because those years that I was working, I didn't have much time for gardening. The first year I planted it, it was wonderful. The problem was that I didn't plant enough. Last year, I bought a few transplants, and also grew some from seed. They grew slower than I had expected and went into the ground fairly small......then the monsoons came. I just didn't have good luck with it last year. We ate a little from it, but it never did form nice big heads like it had in the other time.

I haven't ordered seed this year and have been so busy with company and vacation, I just didn't get it done. I passed the seed rack in Lowes and grabbed a few packs, but didn't think about broccoli. I have been taking advantage of some of the seed swaps, and the free seed offers on-line and have received many, many flower seeds, and seedmama has been tutoring me on the ins-and-outs of doing that, and on wintersowing, in addition to keeping me laughing everyday. I am going to try winter sowing for a lot of my flowers. I hope it works for me, because my yard needs a lot of help.

It is still a little early for me to start tomato and pepper seeds, but I will probably do that in early February. My daughter is getting married at the end of the month, so after that is done, I will start on veggies. The plants have to be watched so carefully under lights, and while under-cover to germinate, I hate to do it unless I know I will be home a lot. Just one day of neglect and they can get leggy.

I brought in flats and 96 small pots and washed (bleached) them up and have them ready to go. I have been thinking about going out to my shed to do some cleaning, and get some more pots ready, but it is too dang cold this week. Some of my veggies, I start in soil blocks and I just do that in my kitchen (don't tell my dinner guests) but I can do that without being too messy.

Both my yard and garden are a mess, so my work is cut out for me again this year. I still have the desire to do everything I could do years ago, but the energy level is just not there some days. I do better in spring and summer because I love being outdoors. I am easily motivated when the sun is shining......but this old housework just doesn't excite me at all.

George is going to send me a new tomato to try. I may have to break down and go to SSE and buy those Tennessee Cutshort beans he talks about because they sure sound better that the ones I have been growing. I just really haven't found a pole bean that I am happy with. They grow fine, but the taste is just not perfect. I bought one pack of bush beans the other day at Lowes. I don't usually plant them because it is hard for me to pick them. Since I don't bend at the waist, I just about have to get on the ground for picking, and our spring weather is normally a little wet for that. I enjoyed the container gardening I did last year, but it seems like I sure had to buy a lot of soil components to accomplish it. I may have to resort to raised beds in the next few years. I am learning that old age isn't for sissies. Is it spring yet?

I just read what I wrote and it sounds like I am complaining, and I'm not. I have a friend that has to use a walker to walk, and has a hard time standing from a sitting position. She has a big yard that is perfectly maintained. In addition, she plants a small vegetable garden that a weed would be afraid to sprout in. She says she weeds by sitting on the ground and pulling herself around the garden. So you see.....I have it good. I really do. Carol