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cleaned off my hab today!

1 small plant.

i picked 11 orange some small, some full sized and 101 green some small some full sized.

will 2 unripe bananas in a paper bag ripen them or must i use apples?
 
I wouldn't use anything, just put them in a paper bag at room temperature, in a humid place if possible. Habaneros produce a high level of ethylene for chiles, and ripen quickly off the plant. Extra ethylene from a banana or apple might cause them to spoil faster (not sure about that though, I've seen conflicting information).
 
I use the peals from a ripe banana and try to keep the bag no more then 2 layers deep. Paper grocery bag rolled closed and laid on it's side is what I do.
 
I could fart in it and send it back... Oh I thought ya said Methane. I would say they will turn red, truly ripen... depends on how immature they are. Can't hurt to try... Those habs put out crazy # of pods... I had a Caribbean Red that every time ya cleaned her out, BAM... nother round.
 
thanks. i put 2 bananas in a large grocery bag and closed it up. there's no humid now the air is dry and cool. i'll check it a couple of days and see how they are doing, i could switch to an apple if need be cuz the bananas will be too ripe to leave out soon, i have to eat or put them in the fridge.

it is amazing how many peppers this one plant has produced over the season. i knew there were a lot of green peppers on it but 101! all total i must have picked 150-170 off it and it wasn't all that big. i'll have to freeze a lot of these or make another sauce which might be a better idea as i have 120 lemon drops, a dozen+ fatalli and some super hots already in the freezer.

the 3 long red thick cayenne plants yielded several dozen peppers all green. not sure what to do with these as they are not all that hot if at all. they tend to have a lot of seeds in fact the insides are just about all pith and seed.
 
Expounding on what I said earlier about conflicting information about using ethylene post harvest...

Most sources say something like this, but they seem to be mostly referencing the same source, and it seems to be mostly from studies done on annums and sweet peppers. Plus capsicum have a huge variation in how they ripen among species and cultivars.

Ethylene Production and Sensitivity: Peppers are non-climacteric and produce very low levels of ethylene at 0.1 to 0.2 μL kg-1 h-1 at 10 and 20 °C (50 and 68 °F), respectively. The use of ethylene to enhance ripening or color change is not recommended because it stimulates respiration and softening more than coloration. The most effective way to color peppers is to hold partially colored fruit at 20 to 25 °C (68 to 77 °F) with RH > 95%. To maintain quality, store them away from ethylene-producing fruits and ripening rooms.

http://www.ba.ars.usda.gov/hb66/108pepper.pdf

Fruit must be handled carefully to prevent skin
breakage and punctures that could lead to decay.
Cooling peppers as soon after harvest as possible
will extend their shelf life. Storage temperature
must be carefully monitored since fruit ripening,
and therefore coloring, can continue to occur at
temperatures above 50º F and chilling injury can
occur below 45º F. Do not store with ethylene producing
fruit.

http://www.uky.edu/Ag/NewCrops/introsheets/hotpeppers.pdf

On the other hand, there's this...

Rates of Ethylene Production
Some chiles such as jalapeños show a nonclimacteric physiology during color change and produce very low levels of ethylene: 0.1-0.2 µl/kg•hr at 20-25°C (68-77°F). Other chiles such as Habaneros show increases in ethylene production during ripening and may produce over 1 µl/kg•hr at 20-25°C (68-77°F).

Responses to Ethylene
Responses to ethylene depend on the particular variety of chile. Chile poblanos for example may respond to ethylene treatment, while Jalapeño peppers do not. As with bell peppers, holding partially colored chile peppers at warmer temperatures of 20-25°C (68-77°F) with high humidity (>95%) is effective to complete color development. Adding ethylene may further enhance ripening but response is variety dependent.

http://postharvest.ucdavis.edu/pfvegetable/ChilePeppers/

Seems to me like habaneros could possibly benefit from extra ethylene, since they produce much more than other varieties on their own, and show a more climacteric ripening pattern, but it's hard to find information specific to chinenses or habaneros. So maybe you should do half with fruit that produces a lot of a ethylene, and half without and let us know how it turns out. :D

Also, as far as I know it generally wouldn't make any sense to try to ripen fruits which produce low levels of ethylene on their own and are considered non-climacteric, with ethylene-producing fruits. If they don't show a climacteric peak and a spike in ethylene production after being picked, then it's probably because they aren't sensitive to ethylene and don't really use it to ripen. It probably wouldn't do any good and may just cause them to spoil faster. Just because ethylene causes a banana or avocado to ripen, doesn't mean it will cause a grape or strawberry or bell pepper to ripen. It's not a universal fruit ripener.
 
In my experience, and another on this forum, if a pepper isn't showing any sign of ripening, ie., totally green it probably won't ripen. If it's showing even the smallest color change then it will probably ripen.
 
I've ripen hundreds of green pods over the years with the paper bag trick including annuums and chinenses. When green, usually over half the pods will ripen and the others often turn to green mush
 
POTAWIE, any chance the ones that did ripen had already started and the ones that turned to green mush hadn't started yet?
 
None were red at all. Usually I only bag ripen pods when a big branch breaks off, or in the fall. I'll try to find the old threads I started about this
 
About 80% of these pods ripened in under a week just by hanging the branch in a small closet

2344719957_a51be9ab24.jpg
 
About 80% of these pods ripened in under a week just by hanging the branch in a small closet

2344719957_a51be9ab24.jpg

That's a branch? Incredible.

Always something to discuss in the hobby eh? I was trying very hard to only pick pods that I could see were already showing signs of ripening no matter how small. I was losing sunlight and did pick a few that were 100% green. I think I'll set them aside and see how they do.

Thanks for the responses POTAWIE. You too Justaguy.
 
IMO the green that ripen had started internally without visible sign and therefore continued.

As you can see in the pic, most pods were a long way away from ripening. You'd be better off with slightly ripening pods but like tomatoes unripe fruit will continue to ripen, just don't expect seeds to mature any further
I've got lots of all green chiles I still have to pick soon and I'm quite sure many will ripen like most other years. I'll try to take pics of the process
 
Soon time for me to string up my rope here. I think I will take it farther this year and hang all the plants instead of just a few.
 
I don't have much experience trying to ripen fully green annums, since I usually just use them green at the end of the season, but I've ripened tons of completely green habaneros and other chinenses and baccatums off the plant. Habaneros and some baccatums (e.g. hot lemon/aji limon) seem to ripen very quickly and easily off the plant, more so than other varieties. Even very immature habaneros will ripen to either their final color, or a slightly lighter version of it off the plant, from my experience.

As you can see in the pic, most pods were a long way away from ripening. You'd be better off with slightly ripening pods but like tomatoes unripe fruit will continue to ripen, just don't expect seeds to mature any further
I've got lots of all green chiles I still have to pick soon and I'm quite sure many will ripen like most other years. I'll try to take pics of the process

I've been wondering about this, if the seeds mature when the fruit is ripened off the plant. Have you tried to germinate some or just going by looking at the seeds?
 
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