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End of season

J

JonMurphy556

With daytime temperatures in the mid 60s and nighttime lows link the mid to low 40s, my pepper growing season is finally coming to an end. The problem is, I still have loads of unripe pods on my serrano, jalapeño, Tabasco, cayenne, and habanero plants. I am unsure if I should pluck the peppers off now and let the plants die in the cold, or leave them on the plant and let them doe on their own together and pick them as things get bad.

Also, are their any tricks to getting pods to ripen on or off the plant?

Any ideas what to do with a bucket full of unripe tabascos? Lol
 
Most are in the ground right in front of my house, so a greenhouse really isn't an option. I can bring two plants inside, though. In the past my over wintered plants kept getting infested with aphids
 
You could tent and stake em with some  CLEAR pvc grade plastic sold on the rolls at walmart..It's really cheap and would help get you by....will bring the temperature up dramatically and help continuing the grow. Just be sure there is adequate/appropriate vent holes upper and lower.   Granted, I don't know the layout of your plantings...just a suggestion.  Good luck!
 
Before first frost you can pull them all and hang them in garage and allow pods to ripen more. I did this a few times, pictures somewhere on site and got an additional 1000 pods easily. People put peppers in a brown bag with a banana for faster ripening. I have also been very successful watering the plants at night before the frost sets in and saved 95%. I usually can save my grow until first week or so in Nov. 
 
Leave them on the plant as long as you can without frost getting to them (or until ripe, of course).

You can also cover plants with blankets overnight to protect them from the first few frosts so long as it doesn't get much below ~ 28F. They need not necessarily be thick insulative blankets. Old bed sheets work too, but you may need bricks or something to pin them to the ground, keep them from blowing away.

As for the final round of green pods that won't make it to ripe... experiment with green sauce recipes. Let the other flavors you add be the essence of the sauce and the peppers mostly add an earthy heat.
 
Put your green pods in a brown paper bag with a ripe banana and an apple. Close the bag with a clip and leave it. Rotate the bag once or twice a day to move the peppers around. Check after 4 of 5 days for ripe peppers. Also check to make sure your banana has not gone bad. Hope this trick works for ya. Cheers!
 
I only placed chillies, some beginning to start ripening. Placed them into PVC transparent bag with paper towels in it to remove the moisture and at the same time to keep the moisture trapped in the bag. They are all ripe now after a week or so. I placed them in wel lit place, because some of them were still dark green.
 
thats how my containers plants were . here ,now gone ,  garden plants still lush / green , still loaded with pods ripening ,  gonna give them a week or so , then it'll look like yours .   :onfire:
 
I am with Dave.  Green chili are great.  But leaving them on till first frost and then picking and putting them in the freezer till you use them shouldnt be a problem at all.  The problem occurs after the frost kills them and they sit on the plant to grow mold.  Go out that morning, find the frost damage, haul them in, put em in the freezer.
 
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