It's never a bad idea to answer questions 2 years late lol.... Because others will read the post and learn and it'll answer other peoples questions like mine. This is like a library, future chili growers will read this to learn how to grow hot peppers. This is my first winter with a chili pepper plant indoors. I had my plant planted in ground outdoors and it still had a bunch of peppers and some flowers on them, so I brought them inside and they peppers seem to be ripening. Some peppers have turned from green to red indoors . I'm using an 11W LED grow light. I also put a germinated Scotch bonnet seed and just transferred from paper towel to pot. Once it grows its first true leaves, I'll put the pot with my outdoor chili pepper and lemon trees which are all under the LED light and a medium window.

Hey, thanks for all the hints, I'll definitely try the vinegar trick to work out how much of this I can use in recipes. It's just that I've got so many of them now! If they wind up being so hot I can only use 1/4 of one in a recipe I'll be fully stocked til 2012 from just what's on the plant now... ah well, can't complain about that really can I? I think you're right that they'll turn red when fully ripe. Now I'm wondering- do hot peppers heat up as they ripen? If so, could harvesting them earlier, at the purple stage, give me a slightly milder chili? Or would that just be sacrificing flavour development? This variety is called "Burke's Backyard Thai Chili" or "Don Burke Thai Chili", named after an Australian gardening show so it might only be available here unless you can order Australian seeds (Yates is the supplier I think). I'm growing it from a nursery seedling and so far it's a very compact, shrubby plant- about as wide as it is tall with very densely packed leaves and upright fruit. Thanks for the advice, I'll let you know how I go, Slashy.

The nomenclature of chiles, like much of gardening, produce and food terminology can be confusing and misleading. Without trying to cover everything related to chiles, the term "green chile" almost always refers to the large, mild ones such as Anaheim, NuMex and Poblano (aka Ancho, which more correctly refers to the ripe stage of a Poblano). All, or nearly all, chiles go through a green stage, but "green chile" does not refer simply to the color, as in a green jalapeno. It refers to specific types of green chiles. It does NOT refer to any pickled (aka as escabeche) chile. Pickled chiles are a condiment like pickles and don't work in a recipe calling for "green chiles" any more than a cucumber pickle works in a recipe calling for cucumbers. The ones in the little cans labeled "green chiles" (containing no vinegar in the ingredients) are the right ones, unless you get fresh Anaheims, NuMex, Poblanos, or Anchos. Even then, to be exact, it refers to large, mild, green chiles which have been roasted and peeled as the canned ones have. I hope this is helpful. Jim P.S. Those tiny cans must seem silly to the folks who buy theirs by the 40 lb. sack in places like Hatch, NM, home of a big chile festival. Here is a link that might be useful: New Mexico Chiles

You're welcome. I'm glad this forum is active! I was talking about the leaves and stalks, rather than the scapes. The scapes have a different texture, I think, but they're great—I don't think I've tried them on pizza, yet. My garlic plants were maybe 12 to 30" tall. This is my first time trimming them down to the ground in the spring like I do with bunching onions. I'm curious how it'll affect them the rest of the year, and if it'll delay the bulbils/scapes and/or change the bulb size for better or worse. I'm also curious how often I can harvest it like that per year. I put a lot of the frozen cut up garlic greens on the pizza (not just a few pieces or anything). If they're not frozen first, they might have a different taste/texture. Garlic leaves will be tougher when the scapes grow (I've tasted then then), but the leaves look the same now as they do then.