When to harvest sweet pepper?

[SaleenSundria]

I have a sweet pepper plant that has one single absolutely massive pepper. It has not produced any other fruits all season and seems to be pouring all it's resources into growing this one, giant pepper. There are a few flowers at the top that look ready to grow into fruits of their own, but after a week they're still droopy flowers with little nubs because this one pepper is still growing

Should I just pick it? How long should I leave it there to grow? I've never encountered an issue like this growing peppers before, I am very perplexed.

 

[Meadowlark]

There can be different considerations in this decision. For one, I would pick a big one like that to encourage more to grow from the plant.

For another, some folks prefer their sweet peppers red ripe, and others such as myself prefer them at the stage you are showing.

It's your call depending on what you prefer and production desired.

 

[pepper]

I agree with Medowlark. I keep robbing peppers from my plants before they are fully ripe but leave a few on each plant to get fully ripe depending on the size of the plant. It seems they grow more and more fruit the more I take off. Some of the plants I haven't touched and they are not setting new fruit, the blossoms just fall off. And even the plants are smaller because all the energy is used for the peppers that started before the plant itself became full size. I have more pepper plants then I'll be able to use so I don't mind playing around with them but I would pick that one if you don't have many plants.

 

[YumYum]

If that is a banana or hot banana pepper, I would have picked it way before what you show. If you bite into it and it is tough and fibrous, then you picked it too late. I don't think I have ever picked a pepper (banana, jalepeno, cayenne, anaheim, bell) after it changes color unless I want to save its seed.

 

[oneeye]

When you plant the plants be sure to write the date down. Look on the pack and see the amount of time the breeder recommends to harvest. When you get to the last day (65) start taste testing.

Sweet peppers. Days To Maturity: 60 to 75 days (sweet) or 65 to 85 days (hot) after transplanting.

 

[Ruderunner]

I tend to pick the first fruits early. As explained to me years ago, the purpose of plants is to spread their seeds, that's it.

If a plant has an easy life it only needs one fruit to spread seed. The plant will put it's energy into that fruit. If that fruit is removed, the plant must develop more fruits to replace it and generally the plants feel attacked and produce more fruits than necessary. Safety in numbers, can't kill us all mindset.

In the case of peppers there's an additional factor. They self pollinate and the shaking and jiggling associated with harvesting grown peppers helps that self pollination process.

Similar for vegetables. Beets don't grow big roots for people, the roots store energy for the plant so it can flower and spread seeds the following spring.

 

[SaleenSundria]

Thank you all for your responses! The pepper will be picked tomorrow before I water, it is a sweet pepper but I don't remember which variety specifically