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How do you guys wait for ripe peppers!
- Thread starter 1tom2go
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now thats funny sh!t ! Â Âoldsalty said:
Streamer said:
Pulling some pods off does not cause remaining pods to ripen faster or use less energy, but it will allow the plant to conserve some water, yet if there is no drought there was no need to conserve water and by leaving it on the plant you keep it hydrated which (all else being equal) keeps it fresher and ripening faster.mlittle74 said:
The thing is, all else isn't equal. They ripen faster at higher temperatures so if it were the middle of summer and you pull pods, they will ripen slower inside an A/C environment. If it's instead going on fall with cold nights they will ripen inside faster with a heated (room temperature) environment, providing they weren't picked so immature that they shrivel up from moisture loss before doing so.
Yes you can cut them off once they start to turn color, BUT with many of the hottest peppers, the moment they start to turn from green to their first hue of ripening is too soon. They would dry out too much before fully ripening unless kept in a very humid environment in which case they would mold before fully ripening.
Gauge each strain of pepper based on its own ripening schedule. Try to wait to pull pods until they are expected to be fully ripe within two weeks. Fully meaning the darkest they ever get into their final shade of color, or lol, in the case of white habs which turn from yellow to white when fully ripe, the lightest they ever get into their final shade of color.
There is another thing you can do to speed up ripening but IMO it's too much of a hassle to do except at end of season when you are forced to bring a lot of green pods inside, pulled off the plant.
Put them in one, or two layers at most, inside a paper (so water vapor can escape) bag with one or more ripening fruit such as tomatoes, apples, mangos, avocados, pears, bananas, etc. The ethylene gas release will speed up artificial ripening. The peppers will not taste as good as those slow ripened but at least they will ripen faster and be better than not ripening as much before molding or rotting.
Ultimately I usually see people anxious about pods ripening because they didn't grow enough plants or didn't grow enough of a variety that ripens earlier in the season in addition to their slow ripening varieties. There are some strains of superhot class peppers that take a month less to ripen than others, especially if their ancestors cross bred with annuums at some point in their lineage.
ÂDave2000 said:
Awesome info, thank you! I probably have a few hundred pods and probably a dozen are in various stages of coloring up (for lack of a better term). We have had some relatively cool weather lately and lots of rain the past week or so with a lot more expected this weekend (Hurricane Jacquin), they've been pretty wet for a week with the exception of one sunny day, so I'm going to move them to my porch (which has a bit of cover) to get them at least partially out of the elements. Rain forecast for at least the next 2 or 3 days so I'm hoping for some nice sun after that to finish these babies up before the frost
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The issue with waiting is to be sure that the pod is fully mature. Starting to color proves that it is fully mature and you can pick. Ripening essentually is a fixed process that can only be affected by temperature - once it starts (i.e. color) it's going to finish. Leaving a pod on the plant does not otherwise affect the process. So picking at first color and allowing it to ripen on the counter makes no difference.
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I disagree with Dave2000 on picking long-ripening peppers at the first color. As for "drying out too soon", maybe he lives in the high desert. Pods are skinned in something resembling waterproof plastic and retain their moisture very well indeed. With normal non-desert humidity they will ripen on the counter just fine. If anything, worry about higher household termperatures supporting rot starting at any pod flaw. In the alternative, pop them in the fridge. They will ripen more slowly but the normal humidity in the chill chest, and especially that in the vegetable bin, will keep them from drying out forever and keep rot at bay. The downside is that they will ripen more slowly. I've been able to keep useable pods in the fridge for 6 months, though 3 months is a better target.
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So yes, leave pods to ripen on the plant if you can. But if something threatens like cold or bad weather, go ahean and pick anything with color or anything that you are relatively sure is fully mature. Then let them finish on the counter or in the fridge.
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Good luck, and hope you didn't get washed away.
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I disagree with Dave2000 on picking long-ripening peppers at the first color. As for "drying out too soon", maybe he lives in the high desert. Pods are skinned in something resembling waterproof plastic and retain their moisture very well indeed. With normal non-desert humidity they will ripen on the counter just fine. If anything, worry about higher household termperatures supporting rot starting at any pod flaw. In the alternative, pop them in the fridge. They will ripen more slowly but the normal humidity in the chill chest, and especially that in the vegetable bin, will keep them from drying out forever and keep rot at bay. The downside is that they will ripen more slowly. I've been able to keep useable pods in the fridge for 6 months, though 3 months is a better target.
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So yes, leave pods to ripen on the plant if you can. But if something threatens like cold or bad weather, go ahean and pick anything with color or anything that you are relatively sure is fully mature. Then let them finish on the counter or in the fridge.
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Good luck, and hope you didn't get washed away.
Read my post again because I wrote the opposite, to not pick at first color but rather to wait till there's 2 weeks till final darkest shade it gets.DMF said:
I've done it both ways. Pods left on the plant stay more hydrated and no, I'm not in a desert condition. Rather than being less humid outside it is less humid inside because of air conditioning, in addition to the factor of the pod staying hydrated by being supplied with moisture through the stem if left outside on the plant.
Keeping them in the fridge is a great way to preserve them short term, but it won't increase the ripeness to waste ratio, usually practically arrests ripening so they're more likely to mold first. Typically if it's hot inside it is hot outside if a dwelling doesn't have A/C, but seldom is the higher temperature inside going to increase the rot to ripen ratio and at this time of year it's of benefit to not have them getting cold overnight and potentially dew forming on them in the morning, plus rain, once they are ripe enough to pick. The best chances of getting them to a ripe state in a timely manner is in a temperature and humidity controlled environment, but one warmer than a refrigerator and with more airflow. Perhaps this is where we have a difference, that there is no practical way for me to store everything in the refrigerator if I wanted to and no way to spread them all out in a thin pile so slight airflow from a fan reduces mold onset. It's a lot easier to talk about one pod in theory than thousands in practice.
Bad weather is a good point to make. It's the one reason I may pick pods early because at this time of year the weight of the pods on longer limbs, especially with the extra weight of rain on leaves, is likely to break limbs off if it's windy. This is one of those lesser talked about reasons to prune, to keep long limbs from getting too heavy and cause the plant to put more energy into the shorter ones.
Sorry, I should have quoted you. I didn't object to your whole post, which is very good overall. (I just edited my post to make that clearer.) This is what I disagree with:
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I don't see drying out as a strong argument against counter ripening, but as suggested that may vary by environment.
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Yes, mold in the fridge is a potential issue that I didn't address. This has more to do with how they are packed than the environment itself. Condensation or lack of air circulation will lead to mold like any other vegetable. Actually, though, in a non-A/C environment in Atlanta (somewhat humid, but not like the coast) I saw more mold on the counter than in the fridge.
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As to volume, you are correct. With enough pods some options are right out. How many plants are you nurturing?
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I don't see drying out as a strong argument against counter ripening, but as suggested that may vary by environment.
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Yes, mold in the fridge is a potential issue that I didn't address. This has more to do with how they are packed than the environment itself. Condensation or lack of air circulation will lead to mold like any other vegetable. Actually, though, in a non-A/C environment in Atlanta (somewhat humid, but not like the coast) I saw more mold on the counter than in the fridge.
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As to volume, you are correct. With enough pods some options are right out. How many plants are you nurturing?
^ One BIG variable is the type of pepper. Some take a lot less time than others to get from almost ripe to fully ripe.
I was also assuming the utmost care was taken to pick them including snipping the stem instead of pulling them off.
I don't grow many peppers, mostly just on a patio and empty landscaping locations so around 35 including non-hot peppers but the hot ones I'm growing are rather large. The following has a tomato and okra off to the side but the middle is all one plant with a 20 gallon container lost under it. The bottom/middle of that one happens to have an example of a big gap where a branch broke off.
I was also assuming the utmost care was taken to pick them including snipping the stem instead of pulling them off.
I don't grow many peppers, mostly just on a patio and empty landscaping locations so around 35 including non-hot peppers but the hot ones I'm growing are rather large. The following has a tomato and okra off to the side but the middle is all one plant with a 20 gallon container lost under it. The bottom/middle of that one happens to have an example of a big gap where a branch broke off.
Ooo. I can see the pods from here and I'm a thousand miles away.
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I wish I had the "too many pods" problem again this year. In Dec. I moved into an apartment with a perfect southern exposure - and at the solstice zero sun.
  Couple that with starting late and I'm 3 months behind you. I can grow until late Nov but may not get any of some superhots at all.Â
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So what's your preferred method of preservation? I usually make big batches of mash and recently started to chop and freeze small amounts.
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I wish I had the "too many pods" problem again this year. In Dec. I moved into an apartment with a perfect southern exposure - and at the solstice zero sun.
  Couple that with starting late and I'm 3 months behind you. I can grow until late Nov but may not get any of some superhots at all. Â
So what's your preferred method of preservation? I usually make big batches of mash and recently started to chop and freeze small amounts.
Non-hots I cut into slice and freeze... until I run out of freezer space which already happened this year so I eat a lot, give away a lot. Hotter peppers I freeze a few bags of but mostly dehydrate or make concentrated sauce out of... more like paste than sauce, also frozen. All the frozen sauce basically takes the place of emergency ice blocks in the freezer in case our ancient freezer decides to finally die, and means I don't have to load it up with vinegar/other-acid to preserve it without refrigeration. I guess it's a sign when your freezer is worth a lot less than what is in it.
