Bell Peppers Query

[its4billy]

I was telling a buddy that I’m going to try growing bell peppers and I’ve saved up some seeds from red, orange, yellow and green ones.
Buddy told me the seeds are all the same thing an all peppers go from one colour to the other as they grow.

Am I being stupid or is he winding me up?

[SarrissUK]

He's not winding you up. The green peppers are totally unripe. Yellow and orange peppers are between ripe and unripe. Red is the most ripe they'll get.
All seeds will produce plants that produce peppers of all colours, depending on their ripeness.

[veggiechicken]

They do change colour as they ripen - so you choose whether he's winding you or not.
One caveat, if you saved the seeds from a shop bought pepper they may not grow the same as they may have been F1 peppers.

[its4billy]

Mmmmmm

Thanks both of you for clearing that up. Green being unripe makes sense, I just can’t stomach them !

Now I owe him a pint 👍

[Mitzi]

It's true that the green ones are just unripe red, yellow or orange ones.

Caveat to what I say next: I've never grown bell peppers, only chillies, but they are the same species capsicum annuum.
I don't think the yellow ones will turn red if they ripen more. Certainly with chillies, they ripen to either red or yellow. There are just a few (e.g. Numex Twilight) which go through a range of colours before ending up as red, but most ripen to either red or yellow, and most of the red ones turn from green to red with no colours in between.

[its4billy]

It's true that the green ones are just unripe red, yellow or orange ones.

Caveat to what I say next: I've never grown bell peppers, only chillies, but they are the same species capsicum annuum.
I don't think the yellow ones will turn red if they ripen more. Certainly with chillies, they ripen to either red or yellow. There are just a few (e.g. Numex Twilight) which go through a range of colours before ending up as red, but most ripen to either red or yellow, and most of the red ones turn from green to red with no colours in between.

Thanks for the info, chillies are my next venture :-()

[Marmande]

It's true that the green ones are just unripe red, yellow or orange ones.

Caveat to what I say next: I've never grown bell peppers, only chillies, but they are the same species capsicum annuum.
I don't think the yellow ones will turn red if they ripen more. Certainly with chillies, they ripen to either red or yellow. There are just a few (e.g. Numex Twilight) which go through a range of colours before ending up as red, but most ripen to either red or yellow, and most of the red ones turn from green to red with no colours in between.

This ties in with my experience, too. I've grown Corno di Toro pointed (sweet) peppers, and some ripened to yellow and others to red. The yellow ones were fully ripe - they would have just rotted if I'd left them on the plant waiting for them to turn red!

[Penellype]

I've grown snackbite red, orange and yellow peppers and they ripen from green to the colour on the packet. As they produce loads of fruit and I don't eat that many peppers, they often get left on the plant until they go brown. The yellow ones stay yellow, the orange ones stay orange and the red ones ripen from green to a darkish almost black colour and then to red.