Don, When i read the part of your post that said thr....thr....thro..throw away the seeds i fell and hit my head. I would have replied earlier but i just woke up from the fall. LoL. If you could get more specific in your wants I am sure there is some that will be more than willing to send some your way. As long as you do not throw away the extras.

Dale

You can easily expand your variety of seeds by trading the extras you buy for different varieties here. Or at least post your extra seeds here as available for a SASE.

Rick

the 'variety packs' dont separate the seed by variety so you dont know what you are going to get from any given individual seed.

at least none of the ones I tried did. just a packet of random seed.

I am not sure of what kinds I want - that is kind of why I am asking here. I have been doing a lot of reading and trying to figure out what kinds I should get, that is kind of why I was looking for a variety pack of seeds. That way I can try different ones plus get multiple colors so they look good in a jar. I have grown a few jalapenos before and even cyan once, but that is as far as my experience goes. We have been given jars of canned hot peppers and love them, one of the local pizza places has "jim's homemade peppers" as a topping and they are great. After looking at pepper joe's site - kinds like "5 COLOR MARBLE" look really neat from a color aspect, but I have no idea how they taste. They have a variety pack on their site but mostly the ones included are red (and its 25 dollars). Since I will be canning I would also like some of them to be larger peppers that fill the jars faster. As far as heat goes I am not looking for the hottest peppers out there - maybe a range from mild to hot. I dont know how canning affects the heat either - if it takes some of the heat away maybe I should be looking to the hotter ones. Is there a good website to check out to help me figure some of this out?

Heaven knows what you get in a variety pack. I opened a package of grand bell mix to find only 7 seeds in it...I could not believe that. Does this say ripoff????? All I can say is they'd better produce some huge peppers for that. It'd be easier to buy a mix of the peppers you want and trade off the seeds you don't need.

Pickling peppers doesn't seem to change the heat much, altho the vinegar does get hot. Sweet peppers pick up the heat from the hot ones when they are pickled together, they all kind of come out the same heat, including if you add other vegs. like carrots or cauliflower to the pickles.

Email me (MyPage) and I will send you a list of what I would recommend for pickling, even mail you the seeds if you like.

Rick

Below is a Pepper Variety Pack offer. Scroll about half-way down the page. Nice starter selection with most being good canning candidates. Heirlooms as well. It IMPLIES the seeds are packaged separately (like the Tomato Mixture below it) but you might want to ask before you buy. He is also running specials this month, selling different kinds of seeds for .25 cents each. Might be worth a look.

Good luck and happy growing.

(No, I am in no way affiliated with this, or any other, website)

Here is a link that might be useful: Tomato Bob's site

Renee's Garden Seeds sells packets of assorted pepper varieties that are color coded. I've used squash and tomato seeds from there and the colored seeds were easy to tell apart and grew well for me. They carry a Southwestern Trio and a Thai Chile Duo that would have hot chilis. The mixed Habaneros are mild....probably not much if any heat to them.

Several big box stores carry Burpee seeds around here and most years they have a one or two mixes of hot peppers in their offerings. But all the seeds in the packets look similar and odds are you won't plant equal amounts of the various types. Not a problem if you aren't picky, but not good if you want two plants of each variety.

If you buy packets of individual varieties, you save extra seed to plant another year. I stick the packets in screw top canning jars and store them in the refrigerator. They keep for a few years.

If you are not looking for a lot of plants of each type you might want to check local nurseries for transplants...better ask ahead in case you can't get them locally and need to mail order or grow your own. I know several places near me where I could buy 5 varieties of hot ones in the spring....probably 10 if I looked a bit. I'm seeing more hot varieties every year.

Transplants can also be shipped to you. Others here could give you suggestions for good mail order sources.

Here is a link that might be useful: Color coded mixed seed packets

I would like to thank everyone on the board for their help. This was the first time I used the site, and it is great. I have been looking over all the forums and their is a bunch of great information. I had never heard of the idea of trading seeds - its great. I am very grateful for Rick helping me get started into the peppers and look forward to helping others this year after the harvest and to expand my varieties by trading seeds.

While I started with Pepper Joe seed stock, and you mention him, I have to say that you can do better than his seed. His is expensive and doesn't always grow true.

If you try anything from him, get the barney pepper. Its tasty.

Everything else can be had elsewhere for cheaper and of somewhat [maybe only slightly] higher quality.

Avoid reimer's seed like the plague.

Burpees has mixed variety packs of both hot and sweet peppers. For beginners they are fun to see what you end up with.
John A

Hey Ohio..

Do you want the rest of mine? I bought a packet, planted some and they ALL came up Hungarian Hot Wax. I'm 99% sure I didn't throw the rest away. If not, there is still a bunch left so unless you are craving hot wax (since I think I planted all those) I would be more than happy to send the rest of them along. I think it's Burpee's too so you can go on Burpee's website and see what varieties are in there. Supposedly there are cherry peppers in there which would look very nice in jars. No guarantees since they are all mixed together but your odds went up!

Also, the zippy vinegar that will be left in your jars after consuming your pickled peppers would be awesome on greens.

Anyhoo... send me an email and we can go from there.

-Erin

ohio wino,

You have mail.

Bill