Variety differences will affect maturation time. Yellow maturing varieties like Yellow Belle tend to set fruit as light yellow and are ready to pick a few weeks after blooming. Purple varieties are similar. There are a few smaller fruited varieties like Zsa Zsa that start out yellow and will get orange blush fairly soon afterward. Banana peppers are usually weeks behind them. If you ever planted Bulgarian Carrot (a hot seranno type) you'll know that they seem to turn orange overnight. I believe that many of the cherry, cayenne and serranos are starting to turn red a few days after reaching their full size. Red Knight is a green bell type that is fairly quick to turn red. I'm guessing that they turn about 8-10 days after the peppers reach mature size.

Thanks tsheets! It's my first year growing peppers for a small farmers market- and ordinarily I wouldn't care about the size. But i know people have "expectations" based on what they are used to at the grocery store. If anyone does peppers on a somewhat larger scale and has some advice I will GLADLY take it! I've got around 200 plants consisting of: Jalepeno Serrano Habanero Hatch medium (big Jim) Hatch mild (new Mexico) Thai long sweet Jimmy nardellos Shishito Italian pepperoncini Golden Marconi Quadrato di Asti Rosso & giallo Orange bell Always grown peppers, but I'm sure there is a much greater science to it than what I know!

Several things jumped out at me in your follow-up post. Just seems that either it is small seedling or 3 ft plant get transplanted I still harvest the same time as everybody else. That sounds like a nutrient issue and nothing can stunt a plant faster than transplanting a 3' plant. Some unconventional practice? No unconventional practice but usually it is some conventional practice being missed. For example, are these all being grown for production in containers? Not real clear from your post. If so then what soil mix is in the containers? That is the most common cause of problems in container growing. Growing in containers is a totally different ballgame than in-ground growing so have you done any reading on the Container Gardening forum here? Great info on mixes, feeding, tips and techniques, etc. As far as pot growing. I grew peppers, but they need lots and lots of fertilizer in container. Not even sure if I should been eating it that much fertilizer. Yes they do, any container plant does since it leaches out every time you water. One reason why liquid ferts works so much better than granular ones do. But which specific fertilizer are you using? How much and how often? And no, you are not "eating it" anyway. Tomato in containers... I used about 80 gal pots with 2-3 tomato in each. Real potential problems there. To begin with I tried mix in bone meal and blood meal into compost, but it didn't seemed to help. No they won't. Both are slow acting and unless there is an active soil microweb in the container - which would be unusual - they aren't useable by the plants. Using organics in a container is a whole other set of issues. Then I started with tomato fertilizer. Then they started growing. And still very little, usually quite small tomato even on beefsteak varieties. Timing of the application as discussed in the thread I linked above is crucial. What type of fertilizer? After first batch of peppers harvested plants slowly started dying - leaves and blossoms just started falling off. Usually caused by over-watering issues that leads to root rot. Especially common if soil (dirt) is in the containers. In your first post you said I do have greenhouse and tried to grow those thing in pots, but that way they produce small quantities of fruit lots of leafs and usually ends up dying before summers end. As others have mentioned you have the ideal set up then for growing a good tomato crop in that protected environment. Even I can do it down here in my greenhouse with much greater heat problems. So if it isn't working in yours then, assuming good environmental controls and adequate sun exposure, the cause isn't that they are in the greenhouse, its in the methodology - the container mix being used or the nutrient methods being used. More details please on those. Especially nutrients and timing of applications since you mention "lots of leafs and small fruit". ...

As Davef1 mentioned, cross pollination could cause it, but highly dountful, imo. Run by us how you saved the seeds... when I save bell peppers seeds, I pull ripe pods. Within a day or 2, I cut the flesh away, leaving the seeds attached to the placenta and stem. I then just let the seed mass dry out for a week or so on a plate. I then dislodge all the seeds on the plate and let them dry out for about another week. Put in envelopes, store in a cool, dry, dark place. Other varieties, I may just scoop out the the placenta and seeds and do the same as above. Superhots, I'll just split in half and do the same as above. Btw, contrary to popular belief, one doesn't have to wait for a pepper to FULLY turn color to harvest seeds. If a pod is STARTING to turn color, the pod is fully mature and seed development is finished. In other words, "mature" comes long before fully "ripe." Kevin