I picked a pepper Yesterday, around 1 day short of fully ripening red. 24 hours later, after sitting in a sealed ziplock bag, it if fully ripened. Do all verieties always ripen off the vine. As long as the pappers are fully sized, can I pick them and expect them to ripen off the vine? This would seem a good strategy, as it would permit the plants to spend more energy on the developing pods and flowers.
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Ripening off the vine
- Thread starter dragon49
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AlabamaJack
Extreme Member
brown paper bags work better IMO because you still have air getting to the peppers...plastic baggies don't "breathe" and therefore could cause problems with mold/mildew in the bags...this again, is JMHO
Good reminder,
You can ripen Bananaās very fast in a brown paper bag, with a red apple sitting next to it in the bag. The oxalic acid speeds up the process. The speed of the color change amazes me. It would be fun to set up some time lapse photograpy to evidence the change.
I'm sure the majority of them would ripen if picked within a day or two of being ripe while on the plant. The issue would be how do you tell when it's close to ripening? Why guess when you can know?
I understand picking peppers will cause the plant to spend more energy growing new pods but what's the trade off? How many unripe peppers do you have to pick in order for the plant to signal itself time to produce more? Will it cause the plant to stop the ripening process of other peppers on it?
I understand picking peppers will cause the plant to spend more energy growing new pods but what's the trade off? How many unripe peppers do you have to pick in order for the plant to signal itself time to produce more? Will it cause the plant to stop the ripening process of other peppers on it?
As long as there is some ripening begun they will ripen. The trade off can be flavor and heat to a degree. I have had branch snaps and green pods with no more the slightest tint of a hint of notion of color change ripened. Ones without any stayed green. I prefer waiting until fully ripe with most of my peppers. I have several new to me varieties going this year, so I pick some green and some half ripe and them some full ripe. This allows me to see where the different flavors are at for different uses. Nancy Reagan should have said "Just say yes to pepper gardening" this stuff is addictive.
I think you mean ethylene, not oxalic acid. Oxalic acid actually delays ripening by inhibiting ethylene production.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21506518
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0925521407000816
It also delays fruit decay by inhibiting polyphenol oxidase.
Seems to depend a lot on the variety and species. There doesn't seem to be much information out there but the ethylene production levels of jalapeƱos and habaneros have been measured, and jalapeƱos produce very low levels while habaneros produce much more (up to 10x more). That seems to make sense from what I've seen, because chinenses ripen much better off the plant than annums. If you pick a fully green, fully sized jalapeƱo or poblano it's not going to turn red, but if you pick a fully green, fully sized habanero they always seem to ripen completely, whether the color change has started or not. Ethylene production is triggered in fruit from bruising, cutting, or damaging the fruit somehow, so it is probably triggered when a pod is removed from the plant too. It would make sense for pods separated from the plant to try to fully ripen as fast as possible in an attempt to develop viable seed. Even underdeveloped habaneros usually fully ripen from my experience as long as they're kept at room temperature and not in the fridge. Some baccatums too, at least the ones that don't go through multiple color stages. Frutescens seem more like annums when it comes to ripening though not quite as slow.
I like to pick chinenses at about 50% color change then leave them at room temperature (not even in a bag, just setting on the counter) for a couple days until they fully ripen and (hopefully) encourage the plant to set more pods, but that's just personal preference. I don't notice any difference in flavor, and I believe they reach their maximum heat at the beginning or early stages of the color change anyway, so I don't think ripening them on the plant is going to make them any hotter. Annums I let fully ripen on the plant. The superhots all seem to ripen more slowly than other chinenses, especially the tips, so I let them go longer. I don't know why that is, maybe it's the frutescens genes in bhuts/nagas. I don't know if the Trinidad varieties have frutescens genes as well, but they seem to ripen more slowly than most chinenses too. They don't really appear to have frutescens genes based on the leaves and fruit, but I remember someone theorizing that mostly chinenses/part frutescens appeared to be the formula for all superhots, so who knows.
Of course, that all goes out the window a lot of the time. I'll pick fruit later because of laziness or being busy, or get a little aggressive and pick them earlier when I go on a picking spree.
That was a little long-winded and probably more than you cared to read, but anyway, you can definitely pick most chinenses and some baccatums before or at the beginning of the final color change and have them reach their final color. Annums, frutescens, and superhots you can probably get to fully ripen off the plant if they're something like 75-80% to their final color. Whether or not picking them a little earlier and finishing them off the plant affects flavor is up to you to decide...
Thanks for the correction re - ethylene.
The post was very informative. I ate the fully ripened (Annum) superchile last night, that finished reipening off the vine. It was at least 75% ripened when I picked it. The heat and flavor was not any different than had it ripened on the vine, as I ate a vine ripened one a few days earleir.
I try to ripen as much as possible, for complete flovor(and to eliminate any green vegetable flovor that I can't stand!),and to collect seeds. I can easily testify about seeds being more viable from ripened fruit from my sprouting experience.
It would be cool if somebody invented a portable scoville tester. I'd love to test my own peppers, and see if my guesswork is correct.
The post was very informative. I ate the fully ripened (Annum) superchile last night, that finished reipening off the vine. It was at least 75% ripened when I picked it. The heat and flavor was not any different than had it ripened on the vine, as I ate a vine ripened one a few days earleir.
I try to ripen as much as possible, for complete flovor(and to eliminate any green vegetable flovor that I can't stand!),and to collect seeds. I can easily testify about seeds being more viable from ripened fruit from my sprouting experience.
It would be cool if somebody invented a portable scoville tester. I'd love to test my own peppers, and see if my guesswork is correct.
ĀAvon Barksdale said:I think you mean ethylene, not oxalic acid. Oxalic acid actually delays ripening by inhibiting ethylene production.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21506518
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0925521407000816
It also delays fruit decay by inhibiting polyphenol oxidase.
Seems to depend a lot on the variety and species. There doesn't seem to be much information out there but the ethylene production levels of jalapeƱos and habaneros have been measured, and jalapeƱos produce very low levels while habaneros produce much more (up to 10x more). That seems to make sense from what I've seen, because chinenses ripen much better off the plant than annums. If you pick a fully green, fully sized jalapeƱo or poblano it's not going to turn red, but if you pick a fully green, fully sized habanero they always seem to ripen completely, whether the color change has started or not. Ethylene production is triggered in fruit from bruising, cutting, or damaging the fruit somehow, so it is probably triggered when a pod is removed from the plant too. It would make sense for pods separated from the plant to try to fully ripen as fast as possible in an attempt to develop viable seed. Even underdeveloped habaneros usually fully ripen from my experience as long as they're kept at room temperature and not in the fridge. Some baccatums too, at least the ones that don't go through multiple color stages. Frutescens seem more like annums when it comes to ripening though not quite as slow.
I like to pick chinenses at about 50% color change then leave them at room temperature (not even in a bag, just setting on the counter) for a couple days until they fully ripen and (hopefully) encourage the plant to set more pods, but that's just personal preference. I don't notice any difference in flavor, and I believe they reach their maximum heat at the beginning or early stages of the color change anyway, so I don't think ripening them on the plant is going to make them any hotter. Annums I let fully ripen on the plant. The superhots all seem to ripen more slowly than other chinenses, especially the tips, so I let them go longer. I don't know why that is, maybe it's the frutescens genes in bhuts/nagas. I don't know if the Trinidad varieties have frutescens genes as well, but they seem to ripen more slowly than most chinenses too. They don't really appear to have frutescens genes based on the leaves and fruit, but I remember someone theorizing that mostly chinenses/part frutescens appeared to be the formula for all superhots, so who knows.
Of course, that all goes out the window a lot of the time. I'll pick fruit later because of laziness or being busy, or get a little aggressive and pick them earlier when I go on a picking spree.
That was a little long-winded and probably more than you cared to read, but anyway, you can definitely pick most chinenses and some baccatums before or at the beginning of the final color change and have them reach their final color. Annums, frutescens, and superhots you can probably get to fully ripen off the plant if they're something like 75-80% to their final color. Whether or not picking them a little earlier and finishing them off the plant affects flavor is up to you to decide...
Hey sorry to bump such an old post, but do you happen to know do habanero ripen faster (when off the vine) in the sun or in a paper bag? I am experimenting with some of mine just now, I guess I can just do a test with 2 of them haha.