My first bell peppers

enchant · September 7, 2013

I'm growing bell peppers for the first time. Due to some issues, I got a late start planting the seeds (may 1), so everything got delayed. The crop was strange. Out of four plants, I only got one pepper initially, and it appeared fully grown around the beginning of August. I wanted to see it change color to red or yellow, so I left it on the vine. It took an entire month before I saw any color change at all, but it wasn't the bright red. It was a dark maroon, almost like it was going bad, but it still felt very solid. So I picked it.

But now that it's been sitting on my counter a couple days, it's definitely starting to turn the bright red color I was expecting. Do they not turn until you harvest them? I'm getting a lot more of them coming in now (but the biggest are only 2" tall at this point), and I'd like to know if I can pick them as soon as they're full size if I want them to turn red.

jerryinfla · September 7, 2013

They will turn red but I've found that they are more inviting to bugs and birds when they get ripe on the plant so I pick them at first or early blush and let them ripen on the counter.

Doug9345 · September 7, 2013

It takes quite a while for a green pepper to turn whatever color it is finally going to turn. A month doesn't sound unreasonable. The cool weather makes it even longer. There's a thread here somewhere that talks about ripening peppers off the plant. I'll find it and post the link here.

Here you go. http://tomatoville.com/showthread.php?t=29862

enchant · September 7, 2013

Good info. Thanks!!

September 7, 2013	#1
enchant Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Jul 2011 Location: Boston, MA Posts: 142	My first bell peppers I'm growing bell peppers for the first time. Due to some issues, I got a late start planting the seeds (may 1), so everything got delayed. The crop was strange. Out of four plants, I only got one pepper initially, and it appeared fully grown around the beginning of August. I wanted to see it change color to red or yellow, so I left it on the vine. It took an entire month before I saw any color change at all, but it wasn't the bright red. It was a dark maroon, almost like it was going bad, but it still felt very solid. So I picked it. But now that it's been sitting on my counter a couple days, it's definitely starting to turn the bright red color I was expecting. Do they not turn until you harvest them? I'm getting a lot more of them coming in now (but the biggest are only 2" tall at this point), and I'd like to know if I can pick them as soon as they're full size if I want them to turn red.

September 7, 2013	#2
jerryinfla Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Dec 2011 Location: Central Florida Posts: 377	They will turn red but I've found that they are more inviting to bugs and birds when they get ripe on the plant so I pick them at first or early blush and let them ripen on the counter. __________________ Jerry - You only get old if you're lucky.

September 7, 2013	#3
Doug9345 Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Oct 2011 Location: Durhamville,NY Posts: 2,706	It takes quite a while for a green pepper to turn whatever color it is finally going to turn. A month doesn't sound unreasonable. The cool weather makes it even longer. There's a thread here somewhere that talks about ripening peppers off the plant. I'll find it and post the link here. Here you go. http://tomatoville.com/showthread.php?t=29862 Last edited by Doug9345; September 7, 2013 at 12:29 PM.