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Chilli Fruit turning black?

Hi

The fruit of my cayenne chilli plants are turning black. They are planted in my field where there is plenty of sunshine.
I wondered the following...
1. What causes the fruit to go black?
2. How can I stop the plant from doing this (ie do I pick black chillies off the plant?
3. Will the chillies stay black or will they turn red?
and finally
4. Can I eat them black?

Sorry for all the questions
 
Some chillis do turn black before changing to their ripe colour, it's like a protection from the sun. Nothing wrong with them otherwise.
 
All chiles do it as a defense against too much sun like these puriras......

purira4-1.jpg
 
tori said:
Hi

The fruit of my cayenne chilli plants are turning black. They are planted in my field where there is plenty of sunshine.
I wondered the following...
1. What causes the fruit to go black?
2. How can I stop the plant from doing this (ie do I pick black chillies off the plant?
3. Will the chillies stay black or will they turn red?
and finally
4. Can I eat them black?

Sorry for all the questions
1. Too much sun. Although, if the black spots are getting soft and squshy, then it's a fungus on the inside of the fruit.
2. Take the plant out of the sun.
3. They'll turn red (or what ever that particular plan't final ripe color is).
4. You can eat them at any time.
 
yep some chiles do turn black because of the sun.

willard - funny you say that & I understand its a defense reaction the chiles take to the sun (have it happen to my chiles every year), but why black ? since the color black attracts more sunlight, so its kinda funny the plant picks that color.
& in the picture those chiles are purple not black :lol:
 
POTAWIE said:
I think its actually a dark purple color and not really black
It may appear black in some cases due to high concentration of Anthocyanin (which often is blue and dark blue does look like black), and/or the presence of multiple pigments. so people do see the color black... not dark purple.
 
They are quite hot and sort of smokey from what I remember. Great looking and great tasting as well as disease resistance, you can't go wrong.
 
rainbowberry said:
What does the Purira taste like? The chileman site says it's very hot. It's a really pretty plant.
I kinda likened it to a smokey roasted red bell pepper. I grew them for a while back in LA, a decent amount of seed in them too.

POTAWIE said:
Strange, my purira peppers were much longer looking but also with purpling pigment.
I think the pic Willard posted is of one of his pygme Purira's that he grows in hydro.
 
Yeah the black seems counter-intuitive, but is kinda like people in sunny Africa evolved with dark skin, and are less susceptible to sun burn because of it. For some reason it works. White people also get darker as a defense aginst the sun. (if we don't over do it and turn pink;))
 
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