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peppers not ripe

M

maybe_so

This was my first year trying to grow hot peppers, It was fun, I should have started earlier than I did but I still got about 50 habeneros and about 10 yellow Fatalli peppers , I have a plant that i think is Ghost pepper, the pods are still green and the weather is getting colder.
  Should i pick them green ? will the seeds from green pods be ok to grow next year? any advice would be helpful.
 
Bring the plants inside if that's an option.  They'll ripen nicely.
 
If not, wait until the last possible day to pick them, then leave them on the counter.  They'll either ripen or rot.  I've heard putting them in a bag with (onions?  bananas? KY jelly?  I dunno, research.) will ripen them faster due to various gasses and invisible pixies released.
 
The seeds from an unripe pod 'can' grow, but there are no guarantees depending on how early it is.
 
to take the plant inside i would need to dig it up and it is like a 3 foot square bush so, I would love to bring it inside
but I wouldnt know how to keep it alive in the house. its staying about 70 degrees and that will get colder in a couple weeks im sure.
but they are not getting as much sun as they used to.
  do you need grow lights to keep them alive in a house over the winter?
 
Try picking a few and bring them inside, wrap them in newspaper and place in warm spot. Down here is how we make fruits ripe, haven't tried on any peppers yet, but give it a try and let us know.
 
If you want to try and save the plant read the post about over wintering plants.
 
I am doing this for my second year, the ones I overwintered last year went nuts this year and produced gallons of peppers.
 
-Alden
 
You can just dig the plants up, pot them, and bring them inside and treat like house plants for the winter - no grow lights needed, though a sunny window is ideal. Yes, read the threads on overwintering, but keep in mind you have three options. First is already mentioned- houseplant. Second is get grow lights and try to keep production going - keep warm as well. Third is to let the plants go dormant. Some do a very severe pruning (trim the plant down to maybe 6" tall.) I've done this, but prefer to keep them larger, only removing minor stems.
 
I've heard of people pulling up plants before the first frost and hanging upside down indoors, and letting then ripen out. I'm planning to try that this year, hopefully will get a few more weeks before first frost.
 
maybe_so said:
to take the plant inside i would need to dig it up and it is like a 3 foot square bush so, I would love to bring it inside
but I wouldnt know how to keep it alive in the house. its staying about 70 degrees and that will get colder in a couple weeks im sure.
but they are not getting as much sun as they used to.
  do you need grow lights to keep them alive in a house over the winter?
Click to expand...
As far as indoor lighting goes, I just trimmed mine back and put em near windows and they survived just fine. Peppers that were on the plants ripened but the main goal was to keep for next season. I had fantastic luck with the OW. Harvesting ripe Reapers and Fatalii's in beginning in Late July up here in zone 6. Go for it!
 
Peter S said:
I've heard of people pulling up plants before the first frost and hanging upside down indoors, and letting then ripen out. I'm planning to try that this year, hopefully will get a few more weeks before first frost.
Click to expand...
 
They don't ripen any faster hanging upside down still connected to the plant, but what that does is gets a lot of plants out of the cold weather quick and up out of the way if you have something to hang them from.  Well, it does also minimize stress on the pods to not be grabbing them to snip the stems, so without stressed flesh the pods may take a little longer to rot if they don't ripen right away, but otherwise indoor hanging can get messy when the leaves start falling off.  I do it in the garage hanging from an extension ladder hanging from the ceiling so they don't get in the way and when leaves fall I can just use a gas blower to get them out of the garage if I'm not motivated enough to compost them at the time.
 
The bit about the gasses does appear to work (at least it has worked for me very well).
 
If you have ripe tomatoes, bananas etc and put the unripe items (tomatoes, peppers) with them, the unripe does appear to ripen nicely.
 
thanks guys for all the coments, I dug them up and put them in a large pot and brought them inside 2 peppers have ripened already !!
yes i totally want to overwinter them .I will read about doing that , plus im saving the seeds from the ripe peppers for next year .
  Thanks again !!!
 
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