I’ve got several types of hot red peppers growing in pots this summer. Usually, I wait until they turn red, then harvest the peppers.
I was just told that to maximize the heat in a red pepper, they should be picked before they turn red, and then left to ripen off of the plant. Does anyone have any info on this?
Well, to best answer the question, we need to know the type of chile, as when to pick to maximize heat depends on the maturity of the chile, and not all chiles follow the rule of green=young and red=mature.
But basically, the more mature chile is, the hotter it will be. So I would think that picking them ripe while still on the vine, as oppossed to ripening off the vine, would result in a hotter chile.
3 kinds of peppers:
Thai Hot Pepper, and 2 that seem to be in the Habanero family, or possibly Scotch Bonnet family. One has a squarish/flat bottom, the other tends to be more pointed at the bottom. Both of these were packaged under a generic “Hot red pepper / caribbean pepper” label, so I don’t know the exact species.
I’m starting to get peppers on all 3 plants that are ripening to red, so I’m pretty sure that ripe=red for all of these.