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To Pick Or Not To Pick & Pot Douglah

O

obchili

Hi there.  Sorry for this stupid post, but I have to ask.  As well, it is dark here, so no picture is available.  I have a 7 Pot Douglah on my plant that has turned to its proper shade of brown almost over the day today it seems.  Anyways, I am asking as I will be away from my plants for a week and wanted to try it, as well as not leaving it hanging to rot....  Also, daytime highs here will be around the 70 degree mark, and nighttime lows in the mid to possible low 40's.  So at the same time, I am concerned.  I do not even mind if it would be advisable to pick it and put it in my windowsill where I will be for a few days.  Anyways, any help on this matter would be greatly appreciated.  Thank you.
 
"Proper shade of brown" is debatable. Douglahs turn a milk-chocolate kind of brown on the outside from green, but they are not quite ripe yet. If you cut one open at this point, you will still find green inside. However, if you wait longer, the pods will turn more of a rusty brown - brown with a definite redness to it. THAT is the fully-ripe stage. 
 
Can you pick it will still milk-chocolate brown? Sure. Can you leave it out, like on your counter, to let it finish ripening? Sure. I happen to prefer pods that ripen on the plant, but to each his own.
 
So is it milk-chocolate brown, or rusty brown?
 
If you are worried ... pick it and put it in the fridge in a paper bag ... personally if it has literally just turned colour I would leave it on the plant until I got back .... or better yet take it with you?
If you are planning on saving seeds from it ... leave it on the plant ...
 
As for shade of brown, I am not 100% sure as it was darker out and there was bad artificial light.  I will use that as a guideline for sure.  I was just worried of leaving a pepper on there and having something happen.  And I am not planning on saving seeds from that one.  Thank you.
 
Pick it, put it in a paper bag with an unripe banana for a couple days. Then you don't have to worry or wait! The banana will help it riper faster than leaving it on a windowsill or just the paper bag.
 
Taste, to me, with brown pods in general, is quite different between almost ripe and fully ripe. Still waiting on my first douglah though. A couple weeks to go I think..
 
Forgot to mention one thing - if it just went from green to chocolate-brown, you can be gone a week and not worry for one second about it - it MIGHT be ripe by the time you get back. You know what they say - a watched pod never ripens.  ;)
 
Not-competely-ripe Doughlahs next to fully ripe Doughlahs
IMG_8823.JPG
 
Ok, so on the plant it stays. Looks like the ones on the left side in the picture provided.

Also, Noah, did you mean ripe, or ripped? I can see what those peppers were drinking.
 
While I would defer to geeme, who has much more experience growing peppers than I, my brown Douglahs (I also have red and yellow variations this year) have been a very dark brown; the color of dark chocolate. Quite comparable to Madballz or chocolate Scorpions.
 
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