• If you need help identifying a pepper, disease, or plant issue, please post in Identification.

How long from flowering to ripe peppers?

N

newbiepepperguy

I realize it varies widely depending on species, genetic, etc. But as a general rule, what timeline am I looking at for the following?
 
JPGS
Scorpion
Aji Lemon
Tabasco
 
These are really the only plants that don't have any fruit set yet, though they all just started flowering, too. The end of my growing season could be as soon as 12 weeks from now (though average is in the 14 week range, with 16 weeks being a maximum). Is that going to be enough time to get a good harvest from each of these?
 
Lemon drops are late if yours are a baccatum. Once you have green lemon drop peppers they may take a month or more to ripen. When a pepper does start to turn it will turn really fast within a few days. Off of 2 plants i was getting upto about 18 ripe every 3 days late in the season. They kept producing well until it got cold.
 
Best guess, .....you wont get a ripe lemon drop until the end of July or sometime in August.
 
ShowMeDaSauce said:
Lemon drops are late if yours are a baccatum. Once you have green lemon drop peppers they may take a month or more to ripen. When a pepper does start to turn it will turn really fast within a few days. Off of 2 plants i was getting upto about 18 ripe every 3 days late in the season. They kept producing well until it got cold.
 
Best guess, .....you wont get a ripe lemon drop until the end of July or sometime in August.
Click to expand...
 
Thanks. So, to summarize, your estimate is 5-7 weeks from flower to ripe lemon drop? Or from full size green pod to ripe?
 
Going from flower to pod is a whole other ball game. That all depends on pollination and temps. Once ive gotten flowers on a Aji Cito or Lemon drop, it wasn't long before i had green pods AND LOTS of pods.
 
I had a single ripe pod on mine last year at least 2 weeks before i got another one. My plants were covered in green pods. Once you see the slightest yellow spot on a pepper just keep an eye on it. They are not like a jalapeno or Anaheim that take a week+ to turn once it starts. It will literally be a couple days for that pepper to turn.
 
Eventually you will get multiple pods turning and thats when the fun begins with lemon drops. Mine kicked in high gear around mid to late August and cranked them out like mad through Sept. They didn't slow down until the temps started to fall in Oct.
 
Malarky said:
are your peppers in the ground or containers. By shuffling my buckets in and out of the garage on cold nights, I picked until mid November last year. 5a/4b WI
Click to expand...
 
The peppers in question are in raised beds.
 
My plants are started in pots then transferred in-ground. I personally think it takes 6-8 weeks from pod set to ripen. I should find out here in a few days. I have one about to ripen...hopefully.
 
Bhuter said:
My plants are started in pots then transferred in-ground. I personally think it takes 6-8 weeks from pod set to ripen. I should find out here in a few days. I have one about to ripen...hopefully.
Click to expand...
 
Thanks! So 6-8 weeks from flower to ripe (give or take a few days for pod to set from flower)? Is that for superhot chinense varieties, or a general rule for multiple varieties/species?
 
newbiepepperguy said:
 
Thanks! So 6-8 weeks from flower to ripe (give or take a few days for pod to set from flower)? Is that for superhot chinense varieties, or a general rule for multiple varieties/species?
Click to expand...
It's not a general rule at all. It's just what I've noticed. But my pod that should be ripening is a Baccatum and it's already at 7 weeks. It set on or right before April 30th.
 
Ok, so this pod made a liar out of me. Instead of 6-8 weeks like I thought, this pod took just under 10 weeks to BEGIN to ripen. The pod was started indoors then the plant was transplanted in-ground outside. Maybe once one pod ripens, the others ripen quicker? Maybe I'm completely wrong and they just take different times. I really don't know. I think the weather plays a huge role. But here are a couple pics of my first Aji Fantasy Yellow pod.

April 30:
Hs9egV6.jpg


July 7:
NfKYbDP.jpg
 
Bhuter said:
Ok, so this pod made a liar out of me. Instead of 6-8 weeks like I thought, this pod took just under 10 weeks to BEGIN to ripen. The pod was started indoors then the plant was transplanted in-ground outside. Maybe once one pod ripens, the others ripen quicker? Maybe I'm completely wrong and they just take different times. I really don't know. I think the weather plays a huge role. But here are a couple pics of my first Aji Fantasy Yellow pod.

April 30:
Hs9egV6.jpg


July 7:
NfKYbDP.jpg
Click to expand...
 
I think you might be on to something. My Habaneros had a similar period of not ripening, and the first one started ripening this time last week. Last night, I picked 6 ripe ones, and 3 or 4 more were at least half orange.
 
10 weeks still isn't that bad of a wait, I suppose. That should certainly still give me a few weeks or a month of harvest before the frost hits.
 
Im getting ripe Aji Citos and 7 Pots daily now. Huge difference from my lemon drops last year. The REALLY odd thing is,,,, the first few were much more orange on BOTH plants. The 7 Pots AND Citos turning right now are more yellow. The Citos are nearly as yellow as my lemon drops from last year too.
 
kvPeaII.jpg
 
ShowMeDaSauce said:
Im getting ripe Aji Citos and 7 Pots daily now. Huge difference from my lemon drops last year. The REALLY odd thing is,,,, the first few were much more orange on BOTH plants. The 7 Pots AND Citos turning right now are more yellow. The Citos are nearly as yellow as my lemon drops from last year too.
Click to expand...
 
Interesting. I feel like I've had the opposite experience with my Red Thai and Poblanos. Deeper Red/Green as time goes on and multiple harvests happen. Could just be me seeing things, though. I'm eating them too fast to compare multiple harvests.
 
This is my first year growing, should I be concerned that my superhot plants have yet to produce any pods? I've got lots of flowers but none have developed into pods. They are in pots, outside.
 
FITN said:
This is my first year growing, should I be concerned that my superhot plants have yet to produce any pods? I've got lots of flowers but none have developed into pods. They are in pots, outside.
Click to expand...
I wouldn't be too concerned yet. Some of mine just set and some are still waiting to set pods. IME, July is when the plants start to really load up. Should be soon!
 
FITN said:
This is my first year growing, should I be concerned that my superhot plants have yet to produce any pods? I've got lots of flowers but none have developed into pods. They are in pots, outside.
Click to expand...
 
You're basically guaranteed to not have frost for at least 10 weeks, probably more like 12 or 13, so you probably don't need to be worried (if "worried" means potentially not harvesting any peppers before frost) unless you don't have pods growing within a couple weeks.
 
How long have they been blooming?
 
newbiepepperguy said:
 
I think you might be on to something. My Habaneros had a similar period of not ripening, and the first one started ripening this time last week. Last night, I picked 6 ripe ones, and 3 or 4 more were at least half orange.
 
10 weeks still isn't that bad of a wait, I suppose. That should certainly still give me a few weeks or a month of harvest before the frost hits.
Click to expand...
I guess what I meant to say was once the first pod ripens, the time from flower to ripe pod might be quicker with future pods.
 
newbiepepperguy said:
 
You're basically guaranteed to not have frost for at least 10 weeks, probably more like 12 or 13, so you probably don't need to be worried (if "worried" means potentially not harvesting any peppers before frost) unless you don't have pods growing within a couple weeks.
 
How long have they been blooming?
Click to expand...
They have been flowering for 3 maybe 4 weeks now. I did have a few rain storms come through a few weeks ago and they got over watered but they seem good now.
 
FITN said:
They have been flowering for 3 maybe 4 weeks now. I did have a few rain storms come through a few weeks ago and they got over watered but they seem good now.
Click to expand...
 
I could be wrong, but 3 or 4 weeks of flowering with no apparent pollination of any 1 of multiple pepper plants sounds like an issue. I wouldn't so much be worried about how much time you have left in the season as I would be by why pollination isn't occurring after nearly 1 month.
 
Are the flowers dropping?
 
They sure are. Im trying to figure out how to post photos lol. I'm using Flickr but can't find the image codes needed to post them.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top