I try to pick my chillis as they ripen, and this year I've been picking and using them since late Sept. I like to use fresh chillies in season, I don't think I could be bothered with frozen chillies. Failing that, I pep stuff up with a small quantity of superhot sauce. I've made a large quantity of chilli and apple jelly, a lot of which is given away to very grateful friends, that's for eating with cheese and cold meats. I've also reduced some chillies to super hot sauce, which includes enough acid and sugar it can be kept without refrigeration until opened like jam.

In better years I've been picking them from August, whereas last year they didn't ripen before the frosts. These dates apply to the rocotos I've been growing recently, which have a long growing season. When I've grown short growing season chillis, I've been picking them from July in good years. Last year when they barely ripened at all before the frosts, I brought the plants indoors, put them on a windowsill, and was picking them from Nov into Jan, though they were not in the best condition.

Don't bother with chillies in the ground unless you have some kind of polytunnel or other mechanism for warming the ground. I've tried chillis in the ground vs in black plastic containers and the black plastic containers win every time, both for yield and timing. I don't have any protection: seeds sown indoors in feb and plants put outside a against southfacing wall some time from mid may to mid june depending upon the weather, it was mid june this year. Chillis need lots of light, so the brightest place you know.

My understanding is that some occasional water stress during growing is what promotes the chillies to become very hot. Chillies recover well from being found with their leaves drooping from underwatering, as has been fortunate as I haven't always been able to arrange to have them watered when I go on my summer hols.

I have found that if the chilli has started to turn from green to red, then if I put it in the fruit bowl it will turn red within 2 or 3 days. If it is thoroughly green still, then it stays green.

I don't like jalapenos. Rocotos are great beacuse the seeds come out easily, cut them in half and you can just knock the seeds out with the end of a teaspoon. They have a reputation for being difficult to germinate, but I have not found it so. I have Alberto's Rocoto from the real seed company.