Dumb question just read the faq.Sorry guys.

I start using mine as soon as they're large enough to use.

There are two times when I harvest. If I want green jalapenos at their peak I start picking them when they start to "cork"(brown light surface cracks) otherwise I let jalapenos ripen red since I prefer the sweeter flavor of a red ripe jalapeno which also lacks the "green" flavor. The only down side to picking red jalapenos is that they take forever to ripen.

HabRob is right - it requires a long time to ripen them but worth the wait if you like the taste [as we both apparently do]. Keep in mind while a fruit remains on the plant to ripen it saps all that energy otherwise used for new blooms and fruit production....so, if you have a ton of plants and can afford less production go ahead and allow them to ripen.

Do the seeds provide the same amount of heat after it has ripened?

Seeds are not hot, If you wash the placenta off the seeds.

For all jalapenos? Red and green? Sorry, not too familiar with many hot peppers.

Thanks for all your replies guys.I just could'nt wait and went ahead and took a few.Took one and sliced it up,popped a piece in my mouth and it set it on fire.Must be good ones.

I couldn't say whether red ripe jalapenos are as hot or hotter than green ones since I've never grown a jalapeno plant that produced pods at any degree of ripeness that were consistent with another pod off the same plant. Heat in jalapenos are pretty much a crap shoot for me. I had ones that seemed to burn almost as much as an hab and others that made me think the plant might be a "tam" jalapeno until a picked another pod to get a nice burn.

When they get big enough to stuff with cream cheese and sausage, they're ready.

Mmm... Nice one Bob. We stuff ours with a spicy breakfast sausage then smoke them on our horizontal, off-set firebox smoker with a mix of pecan and hickory woods. Tasty.

If we eat them raw we prefer to wait until they turn red as they're then sweet but still firey-hot.

Will jalapenos ripen after picked when green? Assuming that my plant is a jalapeno - I have read that pepper production is increased by harvsting. So I have started to pick the peppers when about 3 inches. I have to say that the remaing ones seem to be growing faster now and there are still flowers appearing - nearly August. The peppers are really hard however. No give at all. I have not eaten any as I expec them to turn red - hence the question: will they after they have been picked?

> Will jalapenos ripen after picked when green?

That depends on the stage of maturity. If they were picked at fully mature size and had reached a point to where they were just starting to turn color (whether any red visible or not) they will ripen some more. In no way comparable to a pod ripened on the vine, but just slightly better than when picked.

We see this most often with store bought tomatoes that have been picked at what is called a "breaker stage" and gassed (ethylene) to a somewhat riper condition. And we sure love these tomatoes... right? Wrong. Terrible. The higher the breaker stage when picked the better the end result.

My advice is 'pick them green... use them green while still fresh'.

Other than using xalapas (jalapas) for chipotle where they should be very, very ripe, I always use them green because they taste better.

Xalapas are not that picante when fully ripe.

> ...I always use them green because they taste better.

Thanks to Willard for a gentle reminder to me. Some peppers are truly superb when green. A visit to the Hatch festival would undoubtedly straighten me out & some pod-head friends have sent me jars of these most excellent green, scorched by fire and then peeled gems. And I routinely use green peppers that I grow.

I harvested some of my jalapenos from one of my two plants and now that plant is dying. The leaves are all shiveling up and the pods are drying up. The other plant next to it is showing signs of stress also. Help! Did I do something wrong? First time grower, but heat lover. I live in central Florida.