"I know I cannot save seeds from hybrids? "

Why?

Alot of people like hybrids, including myself. There are many good hybrid plants out there that some of us look for. Take the Reaper for example. It is a cross. Everyone wants it. It is still unstable too.

Just be sure to label your plants as a hybrid, F1 (1st gen) F2 (2nd gen) so on, and tell us what it is crossed with if you know. Sometimes a description or photo helps too. If it is cool, we will ask you to save us seeds. Super-cool, ask becomes begging. :)

Saving seeds from Open Pollinated plants are fine. As long as you tell us it is OP and the plant name, most of us are ok with that. Hybrids occur maybe 2-5 percent of the time on OP. Some say 1%, I go a little higher.

For me, that's the fun of raising chili plants from seeds. Many here cover their plants for pure seeds, but IMO I think even then, you still get hybrids. Of course it is more controlled but it is not 100% certain.

I agree with ronnyb123. Most people save OP seeds. I do as well. I have never had a cross from any seed I saved. I have grown others OP seeds out and got something different but I think sometimes it is just a mis-labeled pack of seeds or a seed that gets mixed into a batch of other.

Pepper plants can and often "self pollinate". This means that a pepper bloom can pollinate itself. The result is that it happens very often. Add that to the fact that it might get pollinated by a nearby plant of the same species and I would say the chances of a cross are about 2%. But that is just a guess by me. I know it is very low though.

I participated in a seed swap last winter and got probably 100 packets of seeds back. I can't remember even one being labeled as isolated.

Save the seeds, plant them next year and if you get a surprise, look at it as a positive.

I did get a surprise from the seed swap we did this past year. One seed pack labelled mustard habanero grew out red habanero pods, but the flavor is different than a standard red habanero and the pods are a little larger. So some sort of cross most likely but a good one. Also I got a black pearl that has grown green leaves and elongated fruit but other seeds from the same pack have grown true. Everything else though has grown true.

Surprises are so fun.

I have one where I picked up some red Peter peppers from Farmer Market. I regrew some and all grew true but 1 plant. It is a hybrid. It is double the size of the Peters and pods look exactly like Habaneros. They have that thick skin of Peter, flowers are the same, just the pods look round and creased like pods of Habanero. I know I didnt mix it up either.
Its pretty cool.

Ok, yall make me feel a lot better about it now, thank you so much :)

So far I have about 5-6 varities currently changing color, so once we use them I will save the seeds from them. You all were so generous in the pepper swap last year that I wanted to give back if I could (although I'm not quite as brave as y'all with the superhots). I just wanted to make sure I did it right so that no one got any unwanted surprises.

So, for example, I have cute stuff peppers that I am saving seeds from, I would just label the pack "Cute Stuff OP" right?

I am excited now as this will be my first time saving seeds. I figured peppers were easier to save seeds from than tomatoes, so I'm taking baby steps and will move up to saving tomato seeds maybe next year lol ;)

Dawn