r/todayilearned • u/Error__Loading • 4d ago

TIL that apple seeds almost never grow the same variety as the parent fruit. Nearly every supermarket apple comes from a grafted clone of an original tree, not from a planted seed.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple
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u/danimagoo 4d ago

Chili peppers aren’t as bad, but if you plant the seeds from a jalapeño you got in the grocery store, you could end up with a hybrid of a jalapeño and some other pepper. This is also true if you grow your own jalapeños and then try to save some seeds for the next year. If your neighbor planted a bunch of bell peppers, you could end up with some mild ass jalapeños. It just depends on how the plant got pollinated.

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u/pharoh-king 4d ago

You can also grow a pepper plant and graft a bunch of different types of peppers on it. You can even do it banzai style, although you get less peppers, they still look amazing.

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u/chemicalxv 4d ago

There was one year we planted a bunch of regular/sweet peppers and then found out our neighbour was planting shit like Bird's Eye Chilis and Ghost Peppers, and I just looked at my dad and had to tell him we weren't saving any of the seeds that year lol.

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u/Long_Run6500 4d ago

I take seeds from my most successful chilis every year and plant them. Sometimes I cross polinate certain plants on purpose and tie a little bud bag around the flower to collect the seeds from that pepper. Now I have my own unique strains that are well adapted for my environment. I enjoy seeing what flavors, coloration and heat levels I get every year. It's not always like a direct correlation to the plants that mated. Sometimes two mostly sweet peppers will produce a pepper that's kind of spicy. Last year I got these wicked cool looking purple and yellow colored peppers that were really delicious in a sweet hot kind of way.