Re: Picking Peppers

[Pat Meadows]

I'm growing two hot pepper plants and right now they have set a lot of

>peppers. I can tell when to pick the tomatoes because they turn red. My >problem is that I think the final peppers are green and they start out >green so it's difficult to tell when they're ready to eat. Is there any >way to do this?

Some peppers are usually picked green - or so it seems, as we certainly see green hot peppers in the grocery stores.

But I believe they will all eventually ripen to some other color: unless they rot first.

Peppers (in the humid northeastern USA) tend to rot or be attacked by insects before they really ripen - at least this has been my experience. So I generally pick some peppers green and leave some to ripen - hedging my bets.

If you want to pick them green, you can judge by the size - if they seem large enough, go ahead.

If I am mistaken about this, will someone please correct me?

Pat

[Bpyboy]

I talked to a Mexican guy who help the neighbor with some yard work. He saw my Serano pepper plants (they stay green too) and he showed me how they fill out, and lose this sort of dull green color. They get plump and really shiny when they are ready to go.

My advice is to pick them too early rather than too late. If you keep them on the plant too long, they stop fruiting.

The jalepenos and habeneros are a lot easier, they turn from green to orange or red.

I understand the peppers are hotter when FULLY ripe, but if I pick the Seranos a little unripe, they are still PLENTY hot for me, and make sure the plants keep flowering and setting fruit. And pat is right. They also like to rot, or get so heavy they start to tear limbs off the plants.

what kind of hots do you grow? You might look it up and see what ripe ones look like.

There are some good sites, one, i think, is called " chilihead.com " or something like that.

[Phaedrine Stonebridge]

That is how I judge as well..... except for varieties I have never seen before and then I jusdge by what size they are when they start to turn color.

[Frogleg]

You didn't mention the varieties, but IMHO chiles are of culinary use at almost any stage of growth. They pretty much all start out green and change color (yellow, orange, red) as they mature/"ripen". You can do your own research by picking some now, and leaving others to sample later. If you leave them long enough, they will rot and decay on the plant. Ex: New Mexico (or Anaheim) chiles are picked and used green for many purposes; they are also picked and used and dried when they become red for yet more uses.