It is easy to grow seeds of peppers and chili if they have enough time to produce ripe seeds well. There are annuals in northern Europe, perennials in the Tropics. They're basically self-fertilizing but sometimes the bees like the flowers and can cause some cross-pollination. To get absolutely pure seed of each sort it is necessary to have at least 500 m to the next pepper or chili plots, or cover the plants carefully with a cloth to prevent the insects reaching the flowers.

Grow the peppers as usual and possibly, remove plants that are tainted or untypical of the sort. When the fruits are ripe, usually dark-red, the seeds are ripe too. Preferably allow the fruits to remain until almost overripe as the seeds get better that way. But even fruits that haven't had time to ripen properly can yield decent seeds if allowed to continue ripening indoors for a few weeks.

Cut the fruits and strip off the seeds. Spread them out on nets to dry. Rub the seeds during drying to separate them. Clean the seeds from any possible rubbish by blowing, sieving and winnowing. Be careful when handling chili seeds, as the dust is hot and irritating to both nose and throat. The easiest way to clean larger crops of peppers and chilies, is by putting the fruits in a mixer with blunt knives and water. The best seeds sink and the fruit-flesh and unripe seeds are easy to remove. After rinsing 4-5 times the clean good seeds are left on the bottom. The fruit-flesh can be dried and ground into powder.

Good pepper and chili-seeds retain their fertility for many years.