To pick the peppers or not? That is the question.

[daviddevantnhisspiritwife]

I have a few pepper plants - not sure on the variety. Corno Rosso possibly. Anyhow, I have a few plants with 2-3 largish peppers on each - they are green. There are also a number of smaller peppers - should I pick the green ones to encourage the lil' uns to swell? Or wait for ripening?

Sorry for this possibly daft and almost certainly duplicated question. But, I don't really know my peppers. Chillis I just leave on the plant.

[realfood]

I would let the large peppers ripen.

[rustylady]

I'm patiently waiting for mine to ripen too

[Bren In Pots]

I always leave mine until they go ripe, that's unless I need one for a meal.

[Thelma Sanders]

Wot they said

[roitelet]

It could be a bit late to get peppers to ripen. I would pick the large ones to encourage the smaller ones to grow.

[Bill HH]

This may be a silly question but how do you know they are not green peppers? Which leads me to ask how do you know when a green pepper is ripe? I have a few on a plant and i havent a clue when to pick em.

[rustylady]

Don't think there any sweet peppers that are green when ripe Bill.

[Paulieb]

It really is up to you and how you like your peppers. Id leave them to ripen as sometimes green peppers can be a bit bitter. However I have got some Nova sweet peppers from real seeds which have been specifically bred to be picked when green. Not tried them yet!

[mothhawk]

Putting banana skins under them will speed up ripening.

[marchogaeth]

I have some of Sarico's green frying peppers and I was wondering what size you pick them at. As for the others just hang on as long as you can even if you end up picking them green, I think they are "mellower". Maybe pinch off any fruit forming now.

[daviddevantnhisspiritwife]

Thank you everybody.

We've used a few green ones in our bean chillis, but they are very bitter. First chilli (madusa) is starting to ripen so maybe the peppers might turn. They are surrounded by ripe tomatoes. Might lob a few banana skins under some plants and see what happens.

[redser]

They can continue to ripen until the frost gets at them. So there is lots of time. I read somewhere that placing white paper at the base to reflect as much light up at the plant can help a bit. And dont forget to stake and support them. I lost a few branches last year and one whole plant collapsed this year from the weight of the peppers. Personally I like them green and ripe so just pick some as I need them But it's great to see them change colour.

[kathyd]

I excitedly picked some small, but very red peppers in my polytunnel yesterday. Not a mish-mash of red / green / black / rotting sections like some of the bigger ones, but lovely shiny, vampire-red-nail-polish sort of red, all firm and healthy looking. I happily bit into one whilst preparing it for dinner. Then I lost my voice. My mouth burned. My lips and tongue positively hurt, and felt like they'd swollen to twice their normal size... Several glasses of water later when my eyes had almost stopped watering (I don't really 'do' hot...), I went to see what on earth I'd picked, given I'd not planted proper chillis.. I discovered that I'd got an extra plant of 'pimientos de padron' in there which I'd completely overlooked, and which had happily gone from green to red whilst hidden by a larger plant. Ouch! I had enough problems with the green version, which are supposed to be one in every 20 or 1 in every 100 which may be a bit hot, but largely not hot at all.. That reminds me, one of my 'must do next year' plans from last year was to improve my labelling...

[Creemteez]

I have been forced to pick some of my un-ripe peppers as some little b****r is weevling their way into them and eating them from the inside out! I'd love to know who's responsible. Think it must be some sort of worm. Picked this one this morning as it was showing signs of having been nibbled. Shame I don't like green peppers, isn't it!