I notice in Josh's article that he says they will continue to mature if the entire scape is cut and stood in a jar of sugar water. It is interesting that those scapes are as tough as they are. They take the wind, they take hard rains. So I guess they provide some nourishment to the seeds as they absorb the last bit of moisture through the stems of the scapes. Next time, I'll cut the scape as long as I can. And pick up some sugar when we shop next.

Sometimes the ripening of a pod can be an immature kind. Or it can be that it was almost ready to change color when you picked it. I thing in this case probably harvesting hastened it. I don,t think fluoro had anything to do with it. I have ripened many pepper pods on the counter top in my kitchen. I have managed to germinate quite few seeds from those that turn color on the counter (shishito, serrano, gypsy, anaheim, chilaca ).. One of them did not germinate and that was a pepperoncino that I had harvested green and it turned red on the counter. On the other hand, if you want to use the pod as spice, it matters very little how it turned color. Unless you want ro save seeds from it.

Seysonn: No offense. But, aren't you the same poster that doesn't believe that ants "farm" aphids? Yet, there's tons of evidence backing it up. Now you don't believe that peppers get sunburned. I guess you've probably never seen it yourself up there in the northwest. Just because you've never seen these things yourself doesn't mean that they don't happen. Research them -- you can see for yourself. Yes. Pepper PLANTS are sun lovers(All veggies are), but the FRUITS are not. If the foliage doesn't support shading the fruit in hot, sunny climates(just about any place in the northern hemisphere in the summer, OTHER than your PNW HZ1), then there are possibilities of sunburn and sunscald. Just like tomatoes. Like Pam said, the fleshier, larger varieties are more prone. But like cjohansen, Pam and myself earlier this year, his Ajis, Pam's Beaver Dams, and my Jalapenos have all got sunburn this year. Like Mark said, totally different than sunscald. Sunscald will be white and leathery. And can rot. Sunburn -- Sunscald-- Google! it's a wonderful thing! Cheers! Kevin This post was edited by woohooman on Wed, Jul 17, 13 at 11:27

If you still have the Cayennes and Jalapeno plants right next to each other (I am assuming around 1 inch) hold on to the seeds and plant them next year you might produce a cool hybrid! This is also my first year growing peppers. Next year I would like to experiment on growing some hybrids. I am growing Cayenne as well; they take awhile to ripe on the plant. My best estimate would be around a month. I am a first year grower, so take the following statements with a grain of salt. You are correct rain is a large factor in pepper growing. If you have an over watering issue the plant leaves will turn to a yellow color. This is a sign of wet feet, roots have become over saturated. This year I planted my pepper plants 6 inches apart when they should have been around a foot apart. I did this intentionally as I did not have a lot of earth to plant on. Plants being close together compete for soil nutrients, but as long as they are producing pods it sounds like they are doing fine. From reading around the forum, aphids sound like a common insect problem. They are a small yellow tick looking thing, but again you would see damaged leaves on your plants if this was happening. If you don't have any plant damage (yellow discolored or holes in the leaves) I would say that youÂre fine. In my opinion it sounds like you just have to wait around on the pods to mature and become ripe. Yes, I know this takes a while. hope this helps Good luck!