• Do you need help identifying a 🌶️?
    Is your plant suffering from an unknown issue? 🤧
    Then ask in Identification and Diagnosis.
  • ✅ Expert and friendly hot pepper grow advice.
    ✅ The latest information on hot pepper varieties.
    ✅ Reliable seed trading.
    ✅ Hot sauce recipes and food safety guidance.
    ✅ Hot sauce business tips for startups.
    🌶️ And more!
    It's all here, at The Hot Pepper! The Internet's original hot pepper community! Est. 2004.

yield-harvest Ripen in bag or leave on plant?

C

cmwr

I know you should remove peppers from a plant to encourage them to produce more. I live in Iowa so my growing season is over about early October sometimes a couple weeks later. I have several plants that are loaded with full-size green pods and they are taking forever. I know they will be ripe probably by the end of this month or early September. Could I increase my yield if I picked full size green fruit and ripened in a paper bag with a banana, or should I just leave on the vine until ripe? For the record the only time I’ve ever done the bag is at last pick of the season before pulling plants. I’m just trying to increase my yield. At the rate habaneros and datils grow, I basically get one good picking per plant each year and a bunch of green smaller fruit towards the end of each season. My habaneros are loaded with a mix of green fruit in various sizes currently and my BC Datils are loaded with lots of full size green pods.

This is why I am on the fence about wasting my garden space next year with true Datils from St Augustine, which I have seeds for, because I hear they take even longer than habaneros and I only have a window from May to October. I start my seeds in early January each year.

Last year I tried overwintering and it worked for one BC Datil and one orange habanero, but the other half of each, which was grown from seeds, are taking off faster than the over wintered plants so I’m not sure I’ll waste my time with that again.
 
Solution
CaneDog
Perhaps it's a "your mileage may vary" situation, but peppers are classified as a non-climacteric fruit. Unlike climacteric fruits (like tomatoes and bananas), peppers generally don't produce enough of the ripening hormone ethylene after being picked in order to properly continue ripening and, from what I've read, supplementing externally - like with the banana-bag treatment - isn't supposed to work. This all suggests they won't ripen properly off the plant and that the color changes and softening seen are typically - or predominantly - signs of decomposition, not true ripening. My take-away is I let them ripen on the plant as much as possible.

I definitely agree that with most peppers removing ripe/ripening peppers will accelerate...
Sort by date Sort by votes
cmwr said:
I know you should remove peppers from a plant to encourage them to produce more. I live in Iowa so my growing season is over about early October sometimes a couple weeks later. I have several plants that are loaded with full-size green pods and they are taking forever. I know they will be ripe probably by the end of this month or early September. Could I increase my yield if I picked full size green fruit and ripened in a paper bag with a banana, or should I just leave on the vine until ripe? For the record the only time I’ve ever done the bag is at last pick of the season before pulling plants. I’m just trying to increase my yield. At the rate habaneros and datils grow, I basically get one good picking per plant each year and a bunch of green smaller fruit towards the end of each season. My habaneros are loaded with a mix of green fruit in various sizes currently and my BC Datils are loaded with lots of full size green pods.

This is why I am on the fence about wasting my garden space next year with true Datils from St Augustine, which I have seeds for, because I hear they take even longer than habaneros and I only have a window from May to October. I start my seeds in early January each year.

Last year I tried overwintering and it worked for one BC Datil and one orange habanero, but the other half of each, which was grown from seeds, are taking off faster than the over wintered plants so I’m not sure I’ll waste my time with that again.
Click to expand...

I just pick the full size green pods, spread them out inside where it's warm, & most color up nicely for freezing or drying.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Perhaps it's a "your mileage may vary" situation, but peppers are classified as a non-climacteric fruit. Unlike climacteric fruits (like tomatoes and bananas), peppers generally don't produce enough of the ripening hormone ethylene after being picked in order to properly continue ripening and, from what I've read, supplementing externally - like with the banana-bag treatment - isn't supposed to work. This all suggests they won't ripen properly off the plant and that the color changes and softening seen are typically - or predominantly - signs of decomposition, not true ripening. My take-away is I let them ripen on the plant as much as possible.

I definitely agree that with most peppers removing ripe/ripening peppers will accelerate production of others. I expect this is a main reason peppers like jalapeno and serrano are harvested green. I've also seen peppers, sometimes even totally green ones, color up off the plant, though the less ripe they are when they come off the less likely the have been to color completely - or at all. Usually, unless they're already close to ripe, they've just softened and decayed in my experience. I suppose I'd suggest trying out how well it seems to work for you with just one or a couple peppers before counting on it to work with a greater number.
 
Last edited:
Upvote 2 Downvote
Solution
CaneDog said:
This all suggests they won't ripen properly off the plant and that the color changes and softening seen are typically - or predominantly - signs of decomposition, not true ripening. My take-away is I let them ripen on the plant as much as possible.
Click to expand...

@cmwr this is the answer. They will not ripen properly off the plant. For best flavor and best results, leave them on until fully ripe (unless you are expecting damage to the fruit from a hard frost or freeze, that's the only time I'll voluntarily pick them green).
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top