Great news for short-season pepper growers!

[janezee]

I haven't read all the posts regarding peppers, and I don't have time to do it right now, but a quick search didn't bring up "ripen indoor".

I just learned from someone in BC that in the fall, when frost is coming, she cuts off her pepper plants at the ground, and then places them in large jars and vases with (very important) NO Water! The peppers just keep ripening on the stem. She showed pictures. I swear!

I'm so relieved. I was thinking I'd have to grow all my peppers in pots and bring them inside, or build a hoop house over them. I've never gotten a ripe red pepper outside, here in the PNW.

I know a lot of gardening tips and I've never heard that one before. Did you know this one? I was gobsmacked! Should I have known this earlier?

I'm working hard at reaching my 2012 gardening resolution, which is to get ripe tomatoes, peppers, eggplant and winter squash this summer.


This summer.

2012.

Yep, this year.

Pleeeeeeeeze?

[tgplp]

Wohoo! Maybe I should go start some peppers seeds now... I thought that it was impossible to grow peppers here, so I dismissed my three bell pepper seed packets.

What a great tip! I've heard of people doing similar with tomatoes.... cut the plants at the end of season, hang them upside down somewhere, and tomatoes keep ripening! Never heard it with peppers though.

Thanks for sharing! I'll have to grow a pepper plant or two this year!

Taryn

[Boutique Tomatoes]

If I can grow them in northern Wisconsin like this: Pepper Harvest, most people should be able to with a little work. I have better luck growing them in black plastic pots or grow bags, because the soil temperature they need to do well just doesn't happen here without help of some kind. I still keep trying though, I've got 450ft of black plastic mulch and I'm thinking of trying that under a low tunnel this year.

I'm already starting my long season peppers though. For us short season folks it's important to put them out almost ready to start blooming.

[janezee]

Well, Mark, where I live, 80F is usually the summertime high, for a couple of days in August. Most often summer starts here around July 10, with the start of temps in the 70's daytime, but nights in the upper 40's to low 50's. Lots of work for peppers, which, I must admit, get ignored a lot because of tomatoes. Taryn's weather is only a few degrees warmer than mine, usually.

[janezee]

So, you've not heard that before, either. I thought maybe I just hadn't been paying attention before.

Aren't you excited now? I am!

j

Originally Posted by tgplp

Wohoo! Maybe I should go start some peppers seeds now... I thought that it was impossible to grow peppers here, so I dismissed my three bell pepper seed packets.

What a great tip! I've heard of people doing similar with tomatoes.... cut the plants at the end of season, hang them upside down somewhere, and tomatoes keep ripening! Never heard it with peppers though.

Thanks for sharing! I'll have to grow a pepper plant or two this year!

Taryn

[Boutique Tomatoes]

Originally Posted by janezee

Well, Mark, where I live, 80F is usually the summertime high, for a couple of days in August. Most often summer starts here around July 10, with the start of temps in the 70's daytime, but nights in the upper 40's to low 50's. Lots of work for peppers, which, I must admit, get ignored a lot because of tomatoes. Taryn's weather is only a few degrees warmer than mine, usually.

Yep, average high for my area is 81F, people start complaining when it occassionally hits 85. I'm almost equally obsessed with peppers, so I've done a lot of trial and error figuring out how to make growing them possible in my area.

Bringing them inside cut like that works if they've started to turn at all but they can start to shrivel before they ripen if they were completely green. What I've had the best luck with is actually picking them right before frost hits and putting them in paper bags with an apple. The idea is that the apple gives off ethelene gas and accelerates the ripening process. You do have to pick through them every 3-4 days and pull out any that may be starting to go bad to make sure they don't contaminate the rest.

Here is a picture of my bags of green ones from last year showing some of them ripening after a week in the bags.

[ddsack]

I tend to leave picking the peppers before frost until the last possible minute, so it's a mad rush to get everything in before dark -- often it IS dark when I'm still picking. So the peppers get stashed in tubs, plastic grocery bags, or whatever I have on hand for a few days, until I have time to sort and freeze them at my leisure. I can remember being rather astounded the first time I looked in the bags and found more red peppers than I knew I had picked.

[Boutique Tomatoes]

It is amazing to see the stuff that would have went into the compost pile turn into beautifully ripe peppers.

I used to put them all in plastic containers, since if one of the kids touches something with pepper oil on it I'm in big trouble. But I had more mold problems, the paper bags seem to breath enough to minimize it.

I talked to an inspector at the Ag deptartment this fall that told me if I wash them in 50ppm bleach water the bleach will kill any mold on the outside of the peppers and will break down completely on contact with the peppers, so there would be no residue. I'm going to try doing some of them that way next year and see if it makes a difference in how many I lose when doing the ripening this way.

[montanamato]

We always pull the plant and hang in the garage when frost threatens....Most peppers near ripening finish this way...

Jeanne

[Tania]

I have my secret ways of how I get all my peppers (well, except C.chinense types) ripen in our cool and wet PNW climate. Since 2007, we stopped picking green fruits, as we have enough ripe ones.

Here is the secret:
1. I start pepper seeds very early (January) and baby them under lights. I have nice big transplants by the time they need to go into the ground (early May/late April)
2. I grow peppers in cold frames.

[Boutique Tomatoes]

Almost all I grow are Chinense and I start them early as well. My nephews joke that I'm going to get raided running big high pressure sodium lights 16 hours a day in my basement to make sure my peppers are big and healthy by Late May/June.
The polycarb panels for my greenhouse are in the garage, hopefully it will go up this spring/summer and let me extend my season some more.

I pick the green superhots because people who want them and can't grow them are a bit nuts. The ones in that picture above sold for $10 per pound even after I told them they were all ones I'd picked green before cutting back my plants for overwintering. Paid for some of my fertilizer and grow bags...

[akgardengirl]

Any recommendations for Anchorage, AK--zone 3/4--maybe 60's - 70's (on the super good days) degrees on the better days--season from June 1-Sept 1st. I grew Early Jalapeno, Hungarian Hot Wax and Thai last year which was my first year. I have seeds this year for Hungarian HW and NuMex Espanola Improved. I might need to get these started since last year they were started with the tomatoes and weren't very big by the time to put them out.
Thanks,
Sue
PS All grown in a greenhouse after leaving the indoors.

[Boutique Tomatoes]

Sue, it would depend on what you're looking for? I've only found a few varieties that I genuinely can't grow successfully here, one is Aji Brown, it's a super long season Baccatum variety that I think I got 2-3 peppers from the second year I tried it. Most of the more common annums are no problem if started early enough.

A big key for me was changing to black plastic containers, I'd assumed that they'd get too hot in the sun and cook the roots, but the plants seem to thrive on the extra heat as long as they get adequate water. I grow in a free flowing mix so I can just water them every day and not overwater, I just have to fertilize a little more often.

[akgardengirl]

Black is the only color I have for pots, which everything is grown in pots at my place. I had some white grow bags that I really liked but they kept the plants too cool here.
Sue

[velikipop]

Growing peppers in the PNW is a challange, but not impossible to get ripe peppers by late August. I grow mine in raised beds in a black plastic mulch that keeps the soil warm. This year I will start them under cover of a small hoophouse. With the exception of the last couple of cool summers I have had no problems with peppers ripening by late summer. The trick of hanging them in the gagrage also works and I did that for some of my chiles which take a lot longer to ripen.