I pull them as soon as they to get to bright red if they are ripening to red. I tried leaving red ones on to wait for others but the started getting soft so I stoppped trying to wait til all are ripe.

I probably should wait but I just can't. When a pod is fully colored it goes into the fridge .. or my tummy.

Dennis

I harvest about a quart at a time, slice'em in half, and dehydrate'em . Even the soft ones come out nice and dry.

"how long is it possible to leave them on?"

I would say it depends on the variety and possibly the growing conditions.

I recently let habs and serranos go for three weeks before picking. Note only a handful of each were already ripe at the beginning, and my daytime temps have been running from the high 90's to 104.

On the hab, of the 60 I picked, there were only 3 bad pods and that was due to worm holes. All the rest were about as perfect as you can get.

On the serrano plants, of the 40 picked, about 10 were soft, likely the ones that were already ripe at the beginning.

Maybe if the temps were cooler the serranos might have fared better, and the habs could have gone on even longer, but I don't know that for a fact.

YMMV

PS Tobascos go soft right after ripening. Sometimes while still orange, even before making it to red stage. Again, heat May be a factor.

The danger with leaving them on, is spoilage, mostly due to rain and rotting. This is more so about peppers like orange habs and generally the ones that don't dry well.

What is this thing you call rain? lol

Again, YMMV :-)

Mecdave,
I think Salevene in in Columbia.
And we, here in PNW also get plenty of it too. Probably that is why I was thinking about RAIN".

mecdave: for future reference, Serranos are just apt to get a bit soft after ripening. Doesn't bother me one bit.

Salavene: In more ideal conditions, an habanero plant, for instance, should put out plenty of pods per harvest that you're wondering what you're going to do with all of them. If you're not pulling a big bag of nice fresh ripe pods each time, look to improving the conditions or... growing more plants.

With me, it's usually the large fruited annuums that I feel I need to grow 3-4 plants of each to get what I want. On the flip side, most large fruited annuums, I pick fresh green. So, ripeness isn't a factor really.

Kevin