--hanging pepper plants for ripening'

15 years ago

howdy folks, hope all is well....i have a dilemma and was hoping for an answer. i know my pepper plants, in my hoophouse, have aphids. along with unripened pepper pods. its getting time for something to happen and get them out of outside. seems like i've heard a person can strip the leaves, pull the plant out of soil, wash soil off and then hang the plants upside down and the pods will ripen. did i hear this correct?...has anyone had sucess with this?......i know people say to just bring the pots inside and they will ripen, BUT i want to do my best to keep the aphids out of the house as much as possible. the plants i want to overwinter i plan to make up new soil, clean the pots, and cut the plants back to just stem and root trimmings and repot in small pots for the winter like i've seen willard do,......any help or suggestion would be appreciated.----bob

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Comments (6)

User
15 years ago
I have hung plants in the garage. I don't believe any more ripen than if I took the pods off the plant and brought them inside. In both cases it seems to be the pods that are near ripe that finish ripening.

john
vic01
15 years ago
If you don't want to do it that way, bring the green peppers in, put them in a paper bag with a banana and they will ripen. Check often and take out the red ones. I had to pick my peppers green due to frost and most of them ripened this way.
srullens
15 years ago
To get tomatoes to ripe, the same procedure.
byron
15 years ago
Tomatoes are sensitive to ethylene gas, most peppers are not

I found that peppers ripen in a garden tray, out of the sunlight, better than hanging plants. never got a ripe one from hanging plants, All I got was millions of aphids.
Suzi AKA DesertDance So CA Zone 9b
15 years ago
Sounds like aphids really love your peppers! I spray mine with water/a tsp of cooking oil/and a couple drops of dish soap. Aphids HATE soap. The oil helps the soap to stick to the leaves. Of course you need to wash the soap off your peppers before you consume them.
rootdoctor
15 years ago
I placed most of my green peppers in my house with 69-71 degree temps, but left a few dozen green ones in the garage with temp fluctuations of 38 - 65 degrees. The peppers in the garage ripened faster AND didn't start to degrade as fast as the ones ripened in the house. Fuzzled me it did. TiMo