I froze some hot cherrry peppers from last years garden. Can I thaw them out and use the seeds to start new plants for this year? They definitely retained their heat even when frozen but I don't know if thawing will damage the seeds. Thank you!

It won't hurt to try and if they don't sprout in a couple of weeks you still have time to purchase seeds.

Be sure to let us know if it works.

Are these commercially available peppers or garden-grown peppers?

I tried this a couple months ago since I've read that it's possible. Tried it from garden-grown habeneros that had been frozen whole from last year and thawed. Put a ton of seeds in, but nothing come up for me and I ended up ordering more seeds instead. But like Henderman said, it can't hurt to try (unless you forget to wear gloves )

Just reading through some older threads and came upon this one...

I think that usually seeds are dried to a semi-brittle stage before storage and freezing. Otherwise, the freezing moisture inside the seeds can cause them to crack open (imagine a frozen, busted pipe). Seeds inside of fresh peppers that are frozen would still be green and most likely be rendered useless.

Anything is possible, though.