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Should I pick these pods or wait?

D

dragon49

Ok,

It is November 24th and the weather will be getting colder.

I have 4 plants with green pods that are still in the ground. The problem with the plants is that due to the weather and lateness of the season the plants are just sticks with pods hanging on them. There are no leaves or flowers. Is there any chance these will mature, or should I pull all the remaining (30 or 40 I suspect) pods?

As a note, yesterday, I pulled 5 or 6 ripe pods from the same plants, but I have no idea if leaves were recently on them.
 
Pick em and stick em in a brown paper bag with banana peal. Given a day or 7 there should be some ripe ones. I just look at their size and if they are near or at the size where others were ripening the chances are good. Once ripening has started on a molecular level the ethylene released by the banana peal will carry it through. Be happy to get full orange heading to red on a pepper that goes red on the plant. Softening can occur while waiting for them to go full, drak red.
 
The leaves being there or not is not relevant. The question is whether the plants will finish ripening the pods or not. It's snowing here today, and currently 33F. I brought some plants indoors to overwinter, but the rest are outside. Between the snow and the temp, I don't expect any more pods on the plants outside to ripen any further. I'll go out tomorrow (not feeling well today, so haven't made it outside yet) and pick whatever pods remain and be done with those plants for the season. Could they ripen further? Maybe. Maybe not. It looks like your area is about 10 degrees warmer, so yours might well be okay a bit longer. My plants mostly seemed to handle 40 ok, but our forecast is to hit the 20's in the coming week - no way they're going to make it after that.

I'd say look at your forecast, then make a decision.
 
Thaks for all of the advice. I'm gona pick a bunch and use Justaguys suggestion. In my experience, stuff will ripen off the vine IF they have started (even a drop) ripening on the vine.

I'll post how it all works out.
 
Justaguy said:
Pick em and stick em in a brown paper bag with banana peal. Given a day or 7 there should be some ripe ones. I just look at their size and if they are near or at the size where others were ripening the chances are good. Once ripening has started on a molecular level the ethylene released by the banana peal will carry it through. Be happy to get full orange heading to red on a pepper that goes red on the plant. Softening can occur while waiting for them to go full, drak red.
Click to expand...
we talking about a few pods. if his weather is fine im sure they can stay there a few more days.

i mean you could pull the plants and throw them inside for the winter?
 
Overwintering would be fun, but for me, it is easier to plant seeds next season. I have seeds from pods of the plants in question, so saving the plant will not offer me any great advantages.
 
maybe? maybe not? keeping a couple plants as long as you can is kinda fun,and cool! maybe keep 2 and still start a bunch ?
 
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