Pepper turning purple

[caters]

Last year I left the ripe red bell pepper on the plant for a while. I saw it start to turn purple and associated this with further ripening.

I have seen so far if I leave a bell pepper on the plant:

Green -> Yellow -> Orange -> Red -> Purple(With red flesh on the inside)

And I suppose that if I leave it on the plant past its purple stage that it will turn brown and dry up.

I looked up purple bell pepper and the sites that I have read say that most purple bell peppers are not a result of further ripening of a red bell pepper but of a variety that is purple on the outside and often green on the inside when it starts ripening.

Could this be because of blue pigment starting to form in the pepper and that theoretically if I left it on there for a longer time I would get a blue bell pepper? Specifically the anthocyanins becoming progressively more blue from the pepper becoming progressively more alkaline?

 

[Chuck]

Last year I left the ripe red bell pepper on the plant for a while. I saw it start to turn purple and associated this with further ripening.

I have seen so far if I leave a bell pepper on the plant:

Green -> Yellow -> Orange -> Red -> Purple(With red flesh on the inside)

And I suppose that if I leave it on the plant past its purple stage that it will turn brown and dry up.

I looked up purple bell pepper and the sites that I have read say that most purple bell peppers are not a result of further ripening of a red bell pepper but of a variety that is purple on the outside and often green on the inside when it starts ripening.

Could this be because of blue pigment starting to form in the pepper and that theoretically if I left it on there for a longer time I would get a blue bell pepper? Specifically the anthocyanins becoming progressively more blue from the pepper becoming progressively more alkaline?

All you are seeing are the varietal traits of that particular pepper when it is completely mature. This is probably from a hybrid pepper and the seed or plant that you planted is not a fully stabilized cross. It takes years and years and many generations to fully stabilize cross pollinated plants so that they will come true from seed. When that finally happens they are called an heirloom.

 

[caters]

but carotenoids(red, yellow, and orange pigments) increase as the pepper becomes more sweet and then anthocyanins(blue pigments) increase as the acidity lowers(which happens if you leave the pepper on the plant past the point at which it turns red and very sweet) which causes the whole pepper, starting on the outside to change color. This is the same reason that blueberries turn blue and strawberries turn red as they ripen.

And I have seen real blue bell peppers, even ones with blue flesh. Those bell peppers are probably blue because of how it kept ripening past the red stage(when it is sweet and acidic) to the point that it was sweet and alkaline.