Habanero pepper seeds successfully harvested/germinated

My habanero pepper seeds have finally germinated!



I came by these seeds in a slightly unusual fashion.  As a spicy food enthusiast, I love habanero peppers, and try to always have at least two or three on hand for spicing up nachos, pierogies, mashed potatoes, etc.  A bag of these peppers got tucked away in the back of the refrigerator, and instead of getting moldy, they dried out in a really pretty way.  Their orange color had darkened and they looked almost crystallized.

Habanero peppers are one of the hottest in the world, and I was pleased that the refrigerator-dried peppers had retained their spiciness.  As I chopped them up for cooking, I noticed that the seeds were completely dry and seemingly intact.  I don´t know much about harvesting seeds, but I know you have to dry them out first, and so these seemed like potential candidates for growing my own habanero pepper plants.

I looked up the planting and germinating instructions for habanero peppers at Renee´s Garden, and planted all the seeds I could harvest from the last dried-out pepper.  I´ve loaned out my seedling heat mat, and so I was concerned that the seeds might not germinate without that extra heat.  As the days and then weeks passed, I began to water the seeds with increasingly warmer tap water to try to really heat up the soil and encourage germination.  Finally, after almost a month, I have two habanero pepper seedlings and indications of at least one other germinating seed.

Like most peppers, it seems that habaneros really like hot weather.  Renee´s Garden recommends "sowing the seeds indoors in February or March, and then transplanting them outside when nighttime temperatures are consistently 50-55 F."  As with the pimientos de padrón, though, I can´t imagine that in this climate I´ll be planting these peppers in the garden before late June, if at all.  It seems at least possible to container garden habanero pepper plants and have them flower and fruit as a perennial.  This seems especially ideal since supposedly the hotter the growing temperatures, the spicier the peppers become, and it would be much easier to consistently supply the plants with hot and bright growing conditions indoors.  Year-round, home grown habanero peppers sounds fantastic.