Hi-
I have a bell pepper plant with several peppers on it. They are all fairly small sized, but are no longer growing. How can I tell when they are ripe? thanks! - Patty
How do I know when bell peppers are ripe?
Un, I usually just pull em when they stop growing, especially if I don't want the buggies to start chomping on 'em.
I'd go ahead and pull em now. Nothing is more heartbreaking than getting ready to pull one and there's a huge hole on the underside where some bug decided to have a snack!
Linda
Many bell peppers turn a different color when ripe, depending on the variety - usually red. But they are ready to use as green peppers at any stage. I pick them when I need a green pepper.
Good point, LTipton. I forgot some bells are actually other than green in color.
I can eat a ripe RED bell pepper like an apple. But, I have to watch it really closely to get to it before some critter does!
One thing about this year's weird weather, it shouldn't get hot enough to scald the peppers.
Thank you, all... I will give one a try tonight. Can't wait! - Patty
LOL LTilton!! Almost every single one of my peppers got sunburned this year!! Of my newest babies that set fruit, I picked off 4 yesterday morning that were already scalded.
My peppers are growing like crazy. I have been picking the purple beauty for a while now and just started getting some green ones. The chocolate mini bells are not ready yet.
Nice lookin' peppers, Cajun!
Thanks. They taste good too. They are an OP variety and I will soon have seeds to trade.
Our peppers a huge again this year. Sorry no picture of the fruit, but here is a picture of the plants. They were set out May 28.
We watered for the first time yesterday. There is T-Tape under the plastic mulch. We have been picking for a little over a week now. We don't worry about getting red ones, enough call for the green bells. We sold about 60 yesterday at $1 each.
They are "Fat 'n Sassy" for anyone interested.
Bernie
So when open pollinated, do peppers cross? I was given seeds of Wonder bell pepper. It turns out to be a 3" long, skinny pepper that tastes like a bell...
If they will cross, it may not benefit you to save seeds when you have many varieties planted in the vicinity. Just a thought.
They do cross. Not only do the seeds not come true, the peppers will not be right.
When we first started market gardening, we had a row of bells & the next row were hot peppers.
We got hot bells & hot peppers that were not hot.
One year we saved a bunch of Thai Hot Dragon pepper plants. In the spring we couldn't find a source for seed of them, so my son planted some of the saved seed. Every plant had a different shaped pepper & the heat was varied. We had a lot of fun that summer selling a basket of what we labeled "Super Fire Mix". Only thing is, we haven't been able to duplicate it since.
Bernie
Thanks for that (suspected) info but maybe seeds SHOULD be saved looking for the "Super Fire Mix" ~ lol
I love Red bells! LOVE em!
I grew green bell peppers in large pots this year... it worked splendidly and now we have had frost. They got frosted but we were fortuneate to get out before the sun was up and was able to hose them off to take the ice off of them and they suffered very little to no damage so then I brought them into the house and am now playing the bring them in take them out game on good fall days.
They are going through their second flush of peppers and so far so good! Times like this make me wished my GH was heated! And they still have lovely flowers on them. They are making me feel like a pack mule... one plant has eight realy good sized peppers and all of them have flwoers that are blooming and or setting more!
I like large peppers for stuffing so I pick them when they are good size or when the green bells have a slight hint of color variation where they are turning either purple or red. I dont car for the red bells. In the end on these though it will be when they quit growing.
Next year I am going to plant bells again. These I grew from plants I got in the spring and maybe I will start some from seed since I saved seed from these. I need to figure out what my sowing date is for indoors for 2010.....mark the calender and continue to fret on these part time houseplants until they are dead! Does anyone do any indoor sowing and have a clue as to the germination time so I can set plants for Memorial day or there abouts?
My understanding is they can tolerate 40-45 degrees so I am thinking for my zone to put seed to small pots in end of March and again in April....I think they need about 6 weeks to be in the same spot before bumping up to a larger pot from the starter.
The small ornamentals like caspicum (sp) are 6-8 weeks.. just read that some place so for like a Christmas ornamental pepper, those should be started no later than NOW!
(Here is a link to my GPS6 thread where I am marking the days for planting for my garden if anyone wants to join in and follow along!
http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/1046430/
See you there!)
This message was edited Oct 13, 2009 10:28 AM
Those look nice. I still have a few on my last mini choclate bell plant and I have quite a few on the Bhut plant. It's the first year I have grown the bhut so I don't know much about it. The plant looks good. (I think) LOL But you can see where something has been eating on my peppers. I got some spray today.
Just brought these in about a week ago. Now my laundry room is a pepper park! They are doing ok so far under lights...but are huge! Got quite a few peppers too! Gonna be interesting to see when they croak.
I'm going to bring a few things in today. They say we might get snow this weekend. I hate cold weather!