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heat Do cold nights have a detrimental effect on pods?

tjg911

tjg911

Nights are getting cold, down to the low 40's and even upper 30's is possible. I have a lot of pods on Brown Moruga, Fatalii, Trinidad Congo and 7 Pot Cinder that are both unripe or starting to change color. The Brown Moruga and 7 Pot Cinder have been very slow to ripen pods in the warm weather though I have picked some. I can't see these 2 varieties fully ripening all the pods on the plants before we have a frost which could be in a week or 2 at the most. I know how these cold temperatures destroy the flavor and texture of tomatoes. Do these cold temperatures damage the heat levels in these pods? I know a frost will kill the plants and ruin the pods. I'd hate to have them lose their heat level from the cold temperatures but I don't want to pick them unripe so I am trying to leave them on the plants as long as possible.

Comments?
 
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SineNomine said:
Stressed plants will increase capsaicin levels.
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Under some circumstances but not all.
It depends on the stress and the plants.
Many types of stress just decrease every type of yield including that of Capsaicinoids.

Near freezing temps stop enzymes from functioning, due to the energies of activation requiring a specific operating temperature. I've not had cold temps cause the peppers I pull from plants to be stronger than the ones I pulled from the same plants at more ideal temps and I've been watching closely.

It's possible in some cases cold temps may inhibit enzymes that break down capsaicinoids more than those same temps inhibit enzymes that form capsaicinoids, resulting in berries with higher levels of alkaloid, but so far as I know that has yet to be clearly and repeatedly demonstrated.
 
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This morning and Friday mornings were the coldest forecast for at least 7 maybe 10 days. Going forwards, it looks like it could be as low as mid 40's by sun rise. The Sun is so weak at this point I doubt it is doing much for the plants.

My 6 plants on the deck in 3 quart pots (2 Brown Moruga, 2 7 Pot Cinder and 2 Trinidad Congo) get a bit more than 8 hours of Sun but most of them have leaves that are more yellow than green. In the garden the 2 Fatalii get about 7 hours but the 2 Brown Morugas and 2 Trinidad Congos probably only get 4-5 hours cuz a trellis with pole beans to their east blocks the Sun until a little before 11 and then they are blocked on the west by tall trees by a little after 3 pm.

I'm sure I'll be picking mostly green pods off the garden Brown Morugas and Trinidad Congo. I have picked some green pods that had a hole or bad spot and the heat level for each variety was pretty good. I started to remove all flowers from all the plants and stopped fertilizing them 2 weeks ago so they put their energy into ripening not producing pods.
 
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The_NorthEast_ChileMan said:
This was recently discussed here.> Advice for unripened peppers at the end of the season.
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Thanks. I didn't know peppers will ripen off the plant once they start to get color. I know tomatoes do, it's called the breaker stage.

The green Trinidad Congos and green Brown Morugas I used had pretty decent heat and at this point I am resolved to accept that I have just plain run out of season and I'll pick and freeze the green pods when frost is a danger. Fatalii and Trinidad Congo produced a lot of pods and did so early on, very good harvest. Brown Moruga was slow to get flowers and while the deck plants don't have as many pods as the garden plants, this variety produced well it just seems to be a later maturity variety. 7 Pot Cinder is a disappointment. They are only on the deck and the 2 plants have produced only 3 ripe pods so far and there are 3-4 unripe. It had lots of flowers but no fruit. Until I hand pollenated I had just 2 pods and they took a long long time to grow and ripen. I saved seeds from the 1st pod but seriously question if this is worth growing again. I have seeds from a dozen other varieties I saved from bhuter's peppers so I would rather try some varieties I haven't grown vs one that is so so.
 
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Hammer Town said:
If they’re in pots and you can bring them indoors overnight I would recommend that.
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Thanks but no way! I had 2 Fatalii plants in pots on the deck last year, they are the 2 in the garden right now. I was bring them in on cold nights and they had Fungus Gnats in the soil. I found an easy way to kill them but it took about 10-14 days so no plants are coming in. I have too many house plants that I don't want to have issues with.

The overnight lows for the next 7-8 days are in the mid 50's which is pretty mild for this time of the year especially in this part of the state. I doubt the temperature will dip into the 40's here so that's a break but the clock is ticking. I noticed yesterday many pods on the 2 Brown Morugas on the deck have quickly started to get darker and I probably can pick many if not most in a day or 2.
 
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