I’ve been gardening for several years now and I rediscovered my obcession with chilli peppers this year after discovering the Chinese 5 Colors dual purpose pepper.
Besides these, I have a few jalapeno plants and a non-descript variety I bought at the supermarket, already potted and well developed, as I was not getting any seeds starting. The newcomer must have generated a jealousy crisis because every seed I had commited to the ground decided to pop up.
I want to store seeds for next year but I don’t intend to have more than one variety at a time growing, so I need to at least store and keep seeds healthy for two years.
Seed storage is a complicated topic. The ideal storage condition depends completely on the species.
Some seeds need to be stored frozen (lettuce and tons of flowers). Some need to be stored at 5C and 40% humidity. Others store near at 30C and 15% humidity. Then there is seeds like wild rice that buck all the tends (can not be stored more than 15 months, has to be in water at 1-2C).
So for Peppers, tomatoes, and cucurbits - the ideal storage condition is 5C and 40% humidity. A wine fridge set to 8C is better than a refrigerator. Do not freeze them. Most seedbanks use manilla coin envelopes but hermetically sealed containers are fine. Do NOT use a dessicant (shortens the storage by years). Pepper seeds will germ for more than a decade under these conditions.