When To Pick Peppers – Harvesting At The Perfect Time
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Peppers come in all sorts of shapes and sizes. It can be difficult to determine exactly when they’re ready to be plucked. How can you tell when peppers are ripe and ready to pick? Here, I’ll share exactly when to pick peppers of any type in your garden.
In this article:
When Are Peppers Ripe?
Different pepper varieties ripen at different rates. Hot peppers are usually slower to ripen than sweet peppers. If you have a seed packet, check the back to get an idea of the average time-to-harvest.
Peppers Change Color
The best way to tell when peppers are ready to pick is to look for changes in color. Almost all pepper varieties will go through a color change during the ripening process. For example, bell peppers change from green to a deep red when fully ripened.
Peppers are edible at any stage of growth, but the flavor will be different. Unripe peppers will usually have less sweetness and more bitterness than ripe ones. If you want maximum heat, hot peppers are usually at their hottest when they are just turning color.
Time Since Planting
Under ideal conditions, most peppers will produce ripe peppers after 90-150+ days from transplanting. If you are growing any superhot varieties, like the ghost pepper or any habaneros, they will take longer. Bell peppers and jalapeños are typically ready for harvesting on the lower end of that scale.
Starting pepper seeds indoors is one way to get your peppers to produce earlier. This allows you to extend the season in early spring, giving the plants more time to mature outdoors in summer and fall. If you’re not sure if your peppers are ready to pick, count back the days to when you planted outside.
Timing is especially important to keep in mind as the growing season draws to a close. You don’t want to let your pepper plants stay out overnight if there is a potential frost. Be sure to harvest any final peppers before this happens!
Pepper Corking
Corking is a natural marking that can appear on many pepper varieties. It occurs when a pepper’s skin grows slower than the flesh, causing tiny stretch marks on the skin. White lines appear when the skin heals over the wounds.
Corking is completely normal and corked peppers are edible. It indicates that a pepper is maturing and may be ready for harvest.
When To Pick Peppers
Depending which peppers you’re growing, you may harvest at different times. To make it simple, I have put together when to pick the most common peppers. For all other peppers, just follow the basic principles of harvesting peppers:
- Changing color
- Peppers reach a mature size and stop growing
- Softening flesh (over-ripe)
- Easily picked from stem
- Corking (on some varieties)
Note: If you plan to save pepper seeds, wait for the peppers to fully mature and change color before harvesting. This ensures that the seeds are mature and will germinate when planted next year.
When To Pick Bell Peppers
Bell peppers are one of the most commonly-grown pepper varieties, and often the most difficult to know when to harvest. This is because many people prefer to eat bell peppers when they are still green (before changing colors).
The fact is, green bell peppers are not fully ripened. You can pick them early, but waiting a few more weeks will result in delicious sweet red bell peppers. Fully ripened bell peppers have a higher nutrient content, too!
The bottom line: Pick bell peppers when they reach a full size and stop growing larger. For a sweeter flavor, wait for them to start turning red, then harvest to finish ripening indoors. I prefer the vibrant color and sweet flavor of red peppers, which are full of vitamin A (beta carotene)!
When To Pick Jalapeños
Jalapeños are some of my favorite peppers to grow. We grow multiple plants every year, so we have lots of experience harvesting jalapeños!
Traditionally, jalapeños are picked when they are still green. Green jalapeños have the savory, smoky, and punchy flavor we all know and love. Wait for the peppers to reach a full size, and ideally wait 1-2 weeks after that before plucking them green.
You can also wait for jalapeños to ripen before picking for a sweet flavor. As jalapeños ripen, they change from green, to almost black, and finally to bright red. The peppers also become slightly softer and much sweeter in the process. Red jalapeños are perfect for homemade chipotles.
The bottom line: Wait for your jalapeños to reach a mature size and develop a deeper green color. Wait a few more weeks for red jalapeños, which have a sweeter flavor.
When To Pick Habaneros
Harvesting habaneros is easy. Habaneros turn orange or red when ripe. Then, and only then should you harvest your habaneros. The flavor and aroma improves dramatically in fully ripe, orange habaneros.
Habaneros are one of the more subtle pepper varieties when it comes to color change. Habaneros start off green, turning to pale or bright orange when ready to pick. They can be picked while green, but they will lack some flavor and heat.
The floral smell of a fully ripened habanero cannot be beat. Some habanero varieties change to other colors, such as red, mustard orange, deep brown or even light purple!
Avoid picking habaneros too early. Some varieties can be prone to sun scald, which can be mistaken for a ripening pepper pod. If it seems too early to be ripe, leave the peppers alone.
The bottom line: Wait for habaneros to turn bright orange before picking. They take a long time to fully mature, so be patient! Only harvest early if there is a threat of frost in the early fall.
When To Pick Cayenne Peppers
Cayenne peppers are widely used in spicy dishes. From cayenne pepper powder to Frank’s RedHot sauce, cayenne has made a name for itself. There are many varieties of cayenne pepper, but most have the same characteristics: Long, skinny, red, and spicy.
Harvest cayenne peppers when they fully change color to bright red. While the peppers can be picked while green, they won’t have a great flavor.
If you’re growing cayenne peppers, you’ll often find that some peppers ripen before others. Be sure to pick the ripe peppers as soon as they are ready. You’ll get the most heat and best flavor this way.
The bottom line: Wait for cayenne peppers to fully turn red, and then harvest immediately. Other peppers on the plant will continue to ripen after each harvest.
How To Pick Peppers
When it comes to pepper harvesting technique, you have a couple options. Many varieties will easily come loose when they are ripe, but others may require some extra effort.
For example, we harvest jalapeno peppers by hand, pulling each pepper upwards to help it break loose. The peppers usually ‘pop’ off of the plant with ease when they are ready.
- Bell peppers can be a bit more stubborn when harvested. Due to the large stem on each bell pepper, I like using a sharp pair of scissors or pruners to cut the pepper off the plant. Make sure you get a clean cut to avoid damaging the surrounding branches.
- Habanero peppers are easily picked by hand. Use one hand to hold the plant’s stem in place, and gently pull the pepper’s stem up and away from the plant.
- Cayenne peppers can be harvested by hand, as they are easy to pick when ripe.
Overall, when picking peppers, your goal is to remove the pepper and cause as little harm to the plant possible. Use scissors or pruning shears if you prefer, or go old fashioned and just use your hands.
I hope this article helps you know when to pick peppers in your garden. This is the most exciting time of year, so enjoy harvesting! If you have questions, please feel free to leave them below.
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Calvin
One of the original Pepper Geeks! When Calvin isn’t gardening or learning more about peppers and botany, he might be traveling new places or playing some music.
I live in zones 9b-10a. I germinated, then planted in 3 gallon grow bags, about ten varieties of super hots including Chocolate Ghost, Wicked Ghost F1, Skunk, Standard Reaper, as well as Cayenne and Trinidad Scorpion. I regularly fertilized with Miracle-Gro regular until bloom, then switched to their Bloom Buster.
The plants grew tall even though I topped them early on. Then, only one of the Wicked Ghost and Chocolate Ghost plants produced fruit even though all of the others bloomed. And they remained at that stage; blooms but not maturing to peppers. All receive at least 8 hours direct sunlight and the soil I used was compost+high quality potting soil.
This is the second year this has happened! What could be the problem?
Unfortunately, I grew about a half dozen varieties of peppers this year, and they generally hybridized with one another. All kinds of colors and shapes growing on the wrong plants, and no clue when they are ripe. I have a bright red pepper on one of my poblanos that I think crossed with a Carolina reaper, small purple peppers growing on a pepper labeled as “red superhot”, etc.
Cross pollination will not cause the plants to grow as new hybrids. This only affects seeds. Learn more in this video.
This is my first time growing gypsy peppers, I don’t know when they are ripe these are sweet gypsy peppers.
I have read you can dig up , or remove the bell peppers and shake loose the dirt, cut back the secondary growth and store it over winter in a cool dry place to gain a next season advantage in growth. Can all peppers be treated this way to hibernate a crop?
Can green peppers that turned ren on bush an then got sun dried be eaten? When they on vacation an the plant died from no water. The peppers look good but got sun dried.
Should be okay as long as no mold set in