Red Ripe Jalapenos?

[tuneboy]

I'm growing jalapenos for the first time.* My main purpose is to smoke them after they turn red.* I have a lot of fruit on three good sized container grown plants.* Yet, they are all green.* I've been patient waiting for them to turn red, but now some of the first fruits are starting to crack and dry.* Is this the normal process?

[Newt]

Hi Tuneboy,

There are many different varieties of Jalapeno.* Yours may not turn red until after they are picked or the plant is stressed a bit more.* The cracking you see is called 'corking' and is natural for some varieties.
http://davesgarden.com/pf/showimage/65438/

You can see the different colors here.
http://www.produceoasis.com/Items_fo.../Jalapeno.html

Maybe this site will be helpful.
http://howtogrowhotpeppers.com/

Newt

[tuneboy]

Thanks.* I'll pick a few and see if they turn.*

How do you know when the green ones are ready to pick?

[Newt]

Ripe after 72 days or 3" long!

Newt

[backyardgardener]

[align=left]I don't know if this will help, but here is a reference guide.[/align]
[align=left]http://www.backyardgardener.com/veg/greenpeppers.html[/align]

[Newt]

I did look there but all it said for Jalapeno is:

Jalapeno M 73 Thick Green- Red E, Jalapeno 3500 to 6000 Processing Market * Uniform, pungent, processing & market.

Newt

[Newt]

Tuneboy,

I was looking for some info for someone on bell peppers and stumbled across a site about Jalepenos.* I can't find it now, but it did say that when they start to turn dark green they are ready to harvest.* I went to look at ours and found several with dark green coloration starting at the stem end.*

Newt

[tuneboy]

My son and I picked about 28 jalapenos today off of three container plants.* At least that many more forming.* Took six nice sweet yellow bells off my one plant as well.* Three more forming.* My reds just started about 10 days ago and are still young and green.* My orange bells are big but still green.* I harvested one today to see if it would ripen off of the vine.* I'm pretty sure the red bells ripen on the plant, but not sure about the oranges.

[Newt]

The sweet bells will ripen on the vine.* Letting them ripen on the vine will cut back on production though.* If you like them green, I'd say to harvest some from the reds.* I prefer them ripe.* I think they are sweeter and I would rather sacrifice quantity for the taste I like.* :)

Glad to hear your harvest is going well.
Newt

[tuneboy]

Thanks for the tip.* Since I don't like green bell peppers, I'll let them ripen on the vine.* I'm getting plenty of fruit from these plants, so bounty isn't a concern.*

My first bells and jalapenos and I can't wait to do it all over again.* They have all been very easy and hearty plants to grow.* Seems difficult to over or under water.* Now that the bells have more and bigger fruit, they are a little more visually sensitive to being under watered, but not much.* The containers seem to be the right size, too.* I think the Jalapenos will go in bigger individual pots next year.