Topic: Sweet and Chilli (hot wax) Peppers

[PakChoi]

Hullo all.  Really a basic question - is anyone else finding these very slow to ripen ?  Mine are outside in a cold frame and seem stuck at the pale and interesting stage.  Toms are ripening however.

Of course if they ever had any sun it might help..   Thank you in advance.  
p.s. I tried putting a banana in there, but got hungry and ate it.

[Mrs Ava]

Some of my Heatwave chillis have started to ripen, but they do seem slow.  But then my toms have only just got going this last 10 days.  I tried a banana to help my toms along, and I found it covered in slugs after 2 days, so if it didn't help ripen my fruits, it did help me cull the slug population!

[PakChoi]

that is quite heartening as I have seen the pictures you posted of your lovely tomatoes, so here is hoping.  Thank you!

[tim]

Here we go again - what is slow? What do you expect? What does the book say? When were they planted?

Ours went in 18 May. We've had half a dozen red peppers & the first chilli is just ripening. In a cold  'house. I'm not worried about timing - they come when they are ready. And 100 chillies will see me through to next year. And round we go again! = Tim

[Mrs Ava]

Tim, I'm afraid I am an impatient woman.  It drives Ava mad!  I have been known to sow my runner bean seeds in the morning, and be poking around in the soil by mid afternoon to see if there are any signs of life!  I am not worried about the chillies turning red, afterall, nothing wrong with green chillies, it is my lovely sweet peppers I am a little more concerned about.  Already I have noticed evenings are chilly and my greenhouse is all closed up.  My plants have lots on them, and I don't want to loose them, however, I guess I can always bring them into my 'tropical house' to finish them off.

[PakChoi]

Hi, just to put this in context, I sowed the sweet peppers mid March, and the Hot Wax Chillis mid April.  Per the books, they should mature in about 18 weeks which makes the sweet peppers about a month "late".  That doesn't worry me as the weather has not been that great, but like EJ, I just wanted to know that the sweets (especially) would begin to ripen before they go off.  The sweets are T&M seeds and they claim maturity in 10 weeks which I ignored as a bit optimistic!
Anyway, I take on board the very sensible advice to calm down. :-[

[tim]

This is interesting. I've never looked at the 'estimated time' for ripening, but you prompted me to look back on our previous years. This showed a remarkable consistency of 'ripe' date, so I thought I'd show them. = Tim

SOWED                  RIPE
6/4                        10/9
7/4                        20/8
10/3                      20/8  
22/3                      28/8
7/4                        20/8
10/3                      20/8
16/3                      16/8

[PakChoi]

How lovely to have a track record!  I am only on year 2 of growing anything to eat, and of course only in my first year of growing certain veggies, so I am very much a novice.  Thank you for your help.

[tim]

LARGE diary & write it all down!!

And aren't we all novices in certain areas? = Tim

BTW - the ones that we've been picking have been from bought-in plants which were probably sown much earlier than mine.

[Multiveg]

Sowed March i think and can just about see a chilli fruit forming & have been brushing the flowers (still some there now).
I bought couple of chilli plants from Robinsons at the Shrewsbury Flower show, and the chillis on that are turning colour (wonder if I can get away with that in the A4A show?)

[tim]

Today's pick - earlier than red to let the others ripen. = Tim

[PakChoi]

Oh, no need to brag.  I am green with envy, much like my peppers. ::)

[tim]

There's still time! And it all depends upon how much heat you can spare to bring them on. = Tim

[PakChoi]

I am quite hopeful actually, but thank you.  A strange and unfamiliar yellow object has appeared in the sky today.

[tim]

I put that badly. I meant, of course, to planting out stage. Ours were sown in late March. And into the greenhouse 6 May.

But, yes - the sun's great, isn't it. = Tim