T wrote:
....
What is considered ripe? All red or mostly red?

depends upon the pepper.

for a green pepper i consider them ripe when the
walls of the pepper have reached their maximum
thickness. you can sometimes tell this from the
heft of the pepper or by giving it a light squeeze.
if it is very firm and heavy then it's probably
good enough to pick.

for red peppers i wait until they are mostly red
on the plant, but if there is a lot of rain or frost
coming i'll pick them even fully green as they'll
finish getting red after they're picked. not the
same as leaving them on the plant, but good enough.

my peppers aren't doing great this year, but there's
still plenty of time yet.

i've never grown any for drying so i can't speak of
that at all...


songbird