Pepper growers: How do I tell when my cayenne peppers are ripe and ready to pick?



I have a single cayenne pepper plant. It’s not much, but I nearly lost it to a cold snap and I’m quite proud of it for recovering. About two and a half weeks ago, the plant exploded with vegetative growth, doubling in size and growing leaves like crazy.

After that, the plant grew little white blossoms that later turned into tiny red peppers. It looks like I’m going to have some fruit from this plant after all, but how do I know when they are ripe enough to pick?

And now that I think about it, I’m not too sure what to do with them once they are ripe. Should I dry them or use them fresh? How do I dry them? What do you use your peppers for?



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4 comments a "Pepper growers: How do I tell when my cayenne peppers are ripe and ready to pick?"

Pick them when they are bright red, use rubber gloves because if you don’t and you touch your eye or mouth you will hate yourself. Once they are picked take a big needle and some fish line or nylon thread and put thru the tops of the peppers and hang to dry like a clothes line inside out of the weather—once dry well just enjoy. They should not touch on your stringer. The will burn out your gizzard true story, I was picking once and for some strange reason popped one in my mouth, thought I was a gonner and my nose ran for two days. They are great in soup, on pizza or steak on the BBQ or in beans.

peppers are ripe when they fully blush red or orange and start to wrinkle. Green fruits can be picked but they have very high levels of the nightshade toxin solanine (however, you would probably need to eat about 4 pounds of green peppers to really be affected by the toxins). You can allow them to dry on the plant (but then you run the risk of pest damage) or dry them off the plant. once dried, they can be crushed or powdered. the seeds have the biggest “punch” of hot flavor. you can enjoy them in any food that needs a little “zip”. You can also enjoy them fresh in salsas. Unless you have very sensitive skin, there is little need to wear gloves to harvest or prepare. Such a process is only necessary for the super hot peppers like habenero. All the same, keep fingers away from eyes when handling any spicy ingredients.

Cayenne can also be blended and strained with garlic to make a home-made pest control. Most insect pests will go a running if they get a dose of pepper/garlic spray. It you mix it with a wax “sticker” or wetting agent to get the spray to retain on the leaf even during rainfall.

When they turn to the color of the pepers that are on the seed packet.

The fruits are slim, pointed and slightly curved, ranging in length from two to eight inches. Most of the fruits are green, ripening to red. They can be used in either the green or the red stage. They take 70 days to harvest. And when you pick them, you can cook w/ them raw or you can dry them out. Use them in curry or w/ meats, salsas, etc.

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