Worth the chance?

Need to know the best time to plant?

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Westi
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Thanks to Mr Mole everything is late this year but I have the biggest sweet pointed peppers that are stubbornly staying green! Now they will not go red off the plant & temp & light levels don't look promising - do I take them green or give them more time? They are in the bubble tunnel which does capture more light through refraction. They are well big though & quite proud of the size! Remember I'm very southern UK - I'm leaning toward taking a few off the plant green & risking it for a biscuit to limp a couple through!

Worth it - or do I take them all green?
Westi
Monika
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I would do as you propose, Westi - take a few green ones off to use now and leave the rest to see what happens.They might still go red but even if they don't, you can always use them green later. Do you think banana skins draped in the plants might help the ripening as it does for tomatoes? Nothing ventured, nothing gained .....
Westi
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Thanks Monica!

Funnily as I was walking out of the house to go to the allotment today I noted a couple of banana's that would be heading to the compost but they had a wee drive & now decorating the tomato & pepper beds but I think I have read somewhere it doesn't work on peppers. As I write this though I wonder about stressing them to ripen by moving the soaker hose & nipping off some foliage? We will see - I hope rats & mice aren't too keen on banana's though! They took all the neighbours early broad bean seedlings on her greenhouse shelf & for the life of us both we can't find how they got in. Mind I might have missed it as I was on outside patrol for signs while she was in & there were brambles at the back but no obvious path. All I could say was likely mice without a clear path - our rats are the huge guys & easy to find where they have been!
Westi
judyk
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I'm a bit late spotting this, but if you still have any green peppers left and you have a polytunnel, or a shed that doesn't get too cold, try uprooting a couple of the plants and hanging them upside down from as high up as you can to get them into the warmest bit of air. This works well for ripening late-season tomatoes, and as sweet peppers are closely related it should work for them as well. I used to do this with tomatoes years ago when I had a polytunnel, and I got a 100% ripening rate, which pleased me no end, as I never, ever had to make green tomato chutney again. :)
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Primrose
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Can you bring the pots indoors and out them by a patio wiNdow or somewhere where the heat is a little higher overnight? . I bought my remaining plants in pots indoors with green peppers on them and ripened and turned red in about a fortnight.
I don,t think they like the steep drop in overnight temperatures even in Poly tunnel .

I also cut a few green ones off and placed their stalks in a dish of shallow water on my kitchen windowsill To see if they would ripen without becoming dehydrated. They didn,t .......so we used them green in the end.

Please keep sharing your own experiences as we all learn something from them.
Monika
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Is there a difference in taste between the green and the red peppers (of the same variety, I mean)? I didn't think there was, or are the ripe red ones sweeter?
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retropants
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To me, red is definitely sweeter.
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