Dude!! You "trimmed" them with a machete???!!!! LOL That's Awesome!!!

Nice Winter haircut on the Hungarian's!

Many of those in the pic look like they're almost turning...lighter green you can tell they're about to go. I'd guess a lot of them will ripen up over the next few days.

LOL!
I use the machette to trim the root ball. I can cut right through the soil and then I just have to shake/rinse out the root ball and then trim them a bit more with a scissors.
Bruce

Ya Me Too...
Here's My Bhuts Haircut:
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And here's the last of the harvest

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Ah well it was a good year.....

Splendid work Bruce!

Yep, a lot of those Hungarians will turn in a few days.
What a great harvest for the end of the season.

You did a fantastic job on the pruning, too.

Josh

Thanks guys. I went and took the pruners to the Bhut again and now it looks similar to the Hot Hung Wax plants except it still has a lot of green but the branches are cut way back. I will post an updated picture when I get a chance.
And YES, I really do hope I get a little color in some of those peppers. How long can I leave them out before I should process them? Also, is there anything I can do to aid in ripening? Temp, light, spread out, all bunched up, etc....???
Bruce

I'd say just leave them on a table or countertop, not in direct sunlight, but at room temp.
You can leave the peppers out as long as they are still firm...which could be a week or two, depending.

Warmth *might* hasten the ripening of the peppers, but it might also speed up the softening.
A friend of mine left some pods in his truck one afternoon, and they seemed to ripen quickly.
Anecdotal evidence, of course.

Josh

Aww, I thought the Bhut looked nice as it was. But I can see if you think it will overwinter better cut way back.

I'm afraid to do mine, was going to start cutting this w/e, hoped to get them through to mid-week in the ground then pot up the ones I was going to overwinter. But 4 AM had violent T-storm (woke us up, gutters overflowing in 5 minutes), still raining (not as hard) now, I have to survey the damage - may pull more plants than I intended this w/e. Noticed a lot of ripe pods yesterday.

Here is my bhut after it's second hair cut. It was already putting out blooms so I cut it back a good deal more and hopefully it will calm down a bit now. It looks like it isn't going to get any more outside time this year anyway so that will probably slow it down too. The Bhut is the one on the right...The other two are my Hot Hungarian Wax peppers.

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Well, with the last of the Hot Hungarian Wax Peppers being canned today, I am officially calling it a season. I still have the over-winter plants but my growing season is over for 2011. Here is the last of it:

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Eleven 8 oz jars in all.
Bruce

Looks good! I still have to put the garden to rest for the year. Decide what to overwinter, pull the rest, take down the tomato trellis, and all that. Probably this week - not that I'm getting anything (was hoping a few poblanos would ripen - I have a bunch of those in the garden) - just a matter of getting around to doing it.

What beautiful canned peppers!! Jealous of the husky chilies you grow in the pots.... we tried one Fall by potting up a few plants from the garden but they didn't survive. The Bhut x the garden is just now ripe & have it in the sun in the garage drying ready to grind into powder for friends that want it.

I see you are in Wisconsin ... I grew up in Stoddard, Wisc. just south of Lacrosse & also lived across the Mississippi River near Lansing, Iowa. Can you grow chili there in the ground or is the season too short? We are at 5200 ft. elevation & zone 7 where we live now in New Mexico; got down to minus 9 last winter & minus 21 back in the 70's but that is rare & most things froze before flowering this Spring so everything just putting on new growth for flowers/fruit next Spring.... hopefully!

Wow Bruce, nice!

You'll be enjoying the summer heat well into winter. Great job.

I'm almost done. I've got one lonely Poblano in the garden trying to ripen in 50F temps. I've also got a few Twilight and Black Cubans in the flower bed that are still putting on a purdy show.

I gotta pull them all next weekend. Starting to feel like snow soon up here.

Vieja: Yes, I grew three Bhuts in my garden this year. One of them is now the overwinter plant. They put out probably about 300 pods for three plants. Probably more than that. Actually, about three hundred more that what I knew what to do with. We get down well below zero here every winter. Average low for January is 4 degrees F. Several days -10 each year. I started my Peppers indoors and wound up harvesting my first Bhuts on July 14th and by September, I had harvested well over 100 ripe pods. I later gave away over 100 ripe pods and there were still dozens of green ones left when I pulled them.

Acutally, I grew up in Winona, MN. I go over to fish on the fishing barge in Genoa a couple times a year so yes, I have driven through Stoddard many times.
Take care and good luck,
Bruce

Well, still harvesting peppers from pots, zone 5a, southern Ontario. Has been an amazing year as we haven't had a hard frost yet. Had plants in a small greenhouse, and brought them in this weekend as they started to languish in temps a few degrees above freezing, and they perked right back up. Still trying to decide whether to trim them back and leave them near the corner with south and west windows, or stick them under the lights in the basement. Maybe I'll do both. Plants are still flowering and growing though, even with the lower light. Lots of peppers ripening.

I also experimented with trying to ripen green peppers from the garden. I found that green peppers of all kinds will ripen, but hanging branches with peppers on them are much faster, and less likely to dry out.

It's been an excellent year, with my first year growing many peppers in pots. I have more peppers in the freezer then I know what to do with. Guess I'll spend the winter making sauces. I am hoping to continue getting fresh Ghosts, Jalape�os, and Bell peppers over winter.

Capoman:
I wish I would have been able to get this much extra time out of the fall. Glad you growing season went well and good luck over the winter. Are you hoping to grow more ripe peppers over the winter months?
Bruce

We've covered the peppers in the ground the past 2 nights (though last night probably didn't need it). Today is the day to pull all the plants that I need to hang for ripe pods, pick the green ones, and pot up the few I'm going to overwinter. Freezing rain starting tomorrow.

If my tomatoes hadn't gotten diseased from all the wet weather in Aug and Sept, I would have had an incredible salsa-making fall!