General rules for determining if a pepper is ripe and ready to pick Good idea: Review the plant information or seed packet information from your place of purchase. This will include details of how your peppers should look, including size and color, and should also include approximate days to maturity. Normally, peppers are ready to pick 75-90 days from planting. Pick them as soon as you can to encourage the pepper plants to keep producing. Banana peppers can be either sweet or hot and they look pretty much the same. If you’ve forgotten which you planted take a look at how they are growing. Hot banana peppers grow up and sweet banana peppers grow down.
Are my jalapeno peppers ripe and ready to pick?
Jalapeno peppers can be picked as soon as they are a deep green about 3 inches long. Jalapenos are most crisp when they are green, but they are also very mild. While ripening, jalepenos go from green, to dark green and then start turning red. When fully mature they are red and have a sweet/hot flavor. Learn much more about the jalapeno pepper here - Jalapeno Peppers Information.
Are my serrano peppers ripe and ready to pick?
Serrano peppers have thin walls and will ripen to red, orange, yellow or brown when ripe. They can be used green or fully ripe. You’ll also want to make sure to harvest peppers when the plants are dry to avoid inadvertently spreading disease. This is important to remember even if you can’t see any signs of disease. If for any reason a pepper is picked before it is ripe, you can place it on a south-facing windowsill until it is bright green and ripe. The more peppers you pick the more will harvest so pick peppers often as soon as they are ripe to continue your harvest growing. No matter what type of pepper, they do not like weather that is too cold. If there is fear of frost, you can cover it at night and uncover it in the morning. Weather.com has a garden area that tells you the risk of frost and the freeze risk. Do not go by frost risk, but instead go by freeze risk. If there is a chance of freezing, the plants will not survive. I’d suggest picking every pepper prior to any freeze risk or prior to it getting around 35 degrees at night. If the temperature drops lower than this the plant will die and the peppers will shrivel and die. Tomatoes are only slightly different. Most of the tomatoes can still be picked even after the plant has died. Then they can finish ripening on the window sill in the sun. Store the peppers in a clear bag in your refrigerator’s crisper drawer for up to two weeks. If you aren’t able to eat your peppers within two weeks, there are many ways you can preserve them for continued use all year long. Learn more about growing chili peppers here - A Guide to Growing Chili Peppers.
Additional Information
Growing Chili Peppers from Seed Growing Chili Peppers in the Ground Growing Chili Peppers Indoors Growing Chili Pepper Plants in Pots Harvesting Your Chili Peppers Winter Gardening for Chili Peppers and more
