When to pick unripe peppers when frost is looming?

[Ouze]

Hello all,

I'm a novice gardener. This year I tried growing some Scotch Bonnet peppers and I've been pretty happy with the results, but I planted them just a tiny bit late in the year I suppose, because there are still quite a few green and greenish peppers on the plants. It's getting pretty cold here (zone 5a, near Davenport Iowa) - the other day it was 34 for a few hours in the morning, and average temperatures now are about 50-55 degrees or so.

I might be mistaken, but the remaining peppers will be destroyed if there is a frost, right? Assuming that is true, at what point should I bring the still-green peppers inside? If I do that, is there any way to ripen them indoors? The plants are in a fairly large planter so I can't bring them in easily.

Thanks!

 

[Chuck]

Peppers do not ripen any further when picked. The hotter the pepper the longer it takes for them to mature. In your climate it is going to freeze hard pretty soon and those green peppers will not turn red before then. They will still be plenty hot even if you pick them now. I would wait until the weather forecasts a freeze and then run out and pick all of them.

 

[Beth_B]

What Chuck said.

Also I am in a similar zone to you, and for several years had a Scotch Bonnet plant that was outside all summer, then brought inside before frost. (Sadly one year I miscalulated and the poor thing froze to death.)

Albeit very slowly, the peppers matured over winter.

Also you can store them in your freezer, and they'll be plenty hot for at least a year.

 

[Ouze]

Thanks guys, will do.

 

[headfullofbees]

There's another option:
when it's just about to freeze, cut the plant stem and move to a frost-free place. Hang the plant, upside down, near some banana skins or red apples; the ethylene gas given off will slowly ripen the peppers.