Chillies - harvesting and use.

[coachman]

I have a small chillie plant on my indoor windowsill.
Don't know what variety it is but has produced a few fruits to about one inch long turning red.

When do I harvest them, and how do I guage how hot they are ?

[zazen999]

Harvest them whenever, you won't know how hot until you either lick them or cook with them. in general the redder they are the hotter they are. And the smaller they are the hotter, but that's not always true.

There's only one way to find out - cut it and taste some. That's what I do.

[deezyb]

hi coachman...i've got several chilli plants on the go...not doing that great, but to encourage more fruit, I'm picking them green... i have one red! like zazen says...the redder they are the hotter they are....their are plenty threads on here about chillies - but we need the sun up here, not much this year it seems...a pity, but we're used to it!

d

[TinyT]

Initially with my chillie plant I was just excited to see some peppers so just harvested some green and left a few on the plant. Some of these turned red and they're are really, really hot in comparison to the earlier, milldly-hot, green peppers. You can almost smell the 'hotness' on them. I guess knowing when to harvest them once they're up & running depends on how hot you like them!

[bluemoon]

If you keep them short of water, to the point where they just begin to wilt, about 48 hours before you harvest them, it makes them hotter.

[Two_Sheds]

...and the "shoulders" of the chilli are hotter than the bottom tip.