Do the first pods harvested tend to be smaller than ones harvested later in the season? Can the first pods be oddly shaped merely because they are the first ones?
Yea I think it depends on the variety but for instance this plants first pods were small and deformed. It's supposed to be a reaper (the red ones). The second wave is much larger.
Most of my plants go straight to first blush,,,,but some will have just a couple of early pods that are misshapen ,It can be frustrating thinking they arent what you thought they were supposed to be
It depends on a lot of things. The first pods on both of my mustard habs last year were some of the biggest of the season. And my Carolina Reaper OW produced picture perfect pods throughout the entire season.
And some varieties (possibly growing conditions?) produce a first wave of pods that are tiny and misshapen. I have a 7 pot burgundy OW that looks like it's covered in raisins right now and a Bhut OW that has a bunch of pods that aren't much bigger.
Now that I reflect on it, I think it mostly has to do with the growing conditions. The small pods always seem to be produced by plants that are either stressed from being overwintered or recently transplanted. All the dinky pods seem to be the result of flowers that were pollenated and began forming pods either during overwintering conditions or right before transplanting.