Counted 181 pods on this plant, tiny to fully mature... :-(

Reaper, btw....

Man, that's no good. I feel for you.

Damn that sucks. Also, 181 pods? Was it an overwinter, or first year plant.

Man that sucks! But don't let the green ones go to waist, they are still hot. I pickled a jar of green reapers last year when I lost the plant to frost, and when I opened them months later the vinegar was like battery acid. One drop was plenty hot!

That is unfortunate. But even IF the plant does not survive , most of its mature pods will turn red, either on the dead branches or on the counter. The remaining greens ones, as Scott mentioned , will be still way hot. How about a St. Patrick's hot sauce ?

It is a first year plant that I germinated in early January. I have never had a plant break like this but this is also the first group of plants that I have started from seed. As a result, very big and heavy and I didn't have the sense to stake it...

Yow... Sorry, that's sad. My friend came into the office last week just fuming. One of her dogs had jumped her garden fence and had broken every single pepper plant in the garden, they were all broken off no more than 4" off the ground. She was ready to take the dog to the pound. She's still griping about that one... I don't blame her, she was planning to do some seed collecting soon. I'm really sorry, I've lost plants like that,, even staked. :-(

Pam

Man that really sucks, but with you posting this us less experienced growers can learn from it. I'll damn sure stake mine now, with all the time and care and let downs I've had getting a reaper growing I would absolutely.... well you know.
So thanks for sharing
Randal

I bet the plant recovers just fine as long as the stem wasn't severed. I've had branches break before and do just fine after tying them back up.

Mecdave, No it's toast, completely severed right at the ground except for a small section of skin..

I wouldn't give up on it just yet. My 9 year old son had "World Cup Fever" about a month ago, and booted a soccer ball at one of my Scotch Bonnet plants. Snapped the main"Y" right down the middle. Same story, hanging on by a thread. I thought it was a goner, but I just zip tied it up for a few weeks (pretty tight actually). Didn't take the zip tie off until it looked like it was choking the main stem (the stem started bulging around the zip tie). It bounced right back, and it's producing ripe fruit. Just saying, it might be worth a shot.

See? Couldn't hurt, right? Even if you have to dig down a few inches at the base and put the ties "underground". Might just be worth the effort. I'd hate to see it be a total loss, especially after all the time and effort we put into this stuff.

KC,
You can also salvage a few of the better branches and use them as cuttings. i did that on my ghost that someone at my house broke. I tested it out on one branch and it worked. I cut the branch into 4 smaller sections and placed them in cups of water until they started showing roots. It took about month but each section sprouted roots. They even had new growth and buds starting before the roots popped out. So thats one way you can save branches with green pods. Just an idea.

Lost in the shuffle of this sad story is the impressive feat of a first year plant producing so many pods, especially for zone 5. Very impressive!

My "first year" zone 4 plants were seeded in mid-Feb and are doing very well, but getting 40 pods/plant this year will be pushing it.

What kind of a monster would take a dog to the pound for acting like a DOG???

Wow, great fruit set. Sorry that happened but you've got lots of great advice here. At least it won't be a total loss (darn vole has been snapping or chomping off branches of my Hinkelhatz, Aji Limon and now serranos so my yield is reduced esp. since Aji and serranos just started flowering).

Yeah, that really sucks. I'll be sure to stake my Hungarian Pumpkin pepper. Pods get pretty heavy.

Stoney

I feel your pain,just lost a pepper plant to 40 plus mile per hour winds.The winds just came up out of no where.They were talk about how strong the winds were today on the news channel.My plant found out first hand.

two things I can say
1) tomato cages make great pepper stakers
2) as FLIPBACK23 said, you may be able to root in water, but
what I can say is Willow bark solution is great for roots.
Find a Willow and put some bark in the water to help the
rooting process

good luck with it, that really bites

deeby... GOD get over it, she was JOKING!

Duct Tape!!! It fixes everything. ðÂÂÂ

Oh dear god! :-) good one. I also found that duct tape is great for sealing a greenhouse door that acts as an air seep. Makes opening it a bit difficult when it's taped shut. You know that the racers also use it on their headlights (show room stock cars have to have their headlights taped up), holds up even in rain going 80-100mph. That should be an ad for duct tape!
Pam

it could be worse. I have 2 reaper plants, and I've pulled 2 pods off them all season. started seeds in december. if you picked up 3 ripe pods off the ground, you're still beating me.

Judo, sounds like my reapers. I also have 2 and I haven't gotten a single one off of mine. so far the biggest fruit is about 3/4" long, how big does the fruit get? I've got tons and tons of flowers, and they are just now starting to put on fruit, but it's going to be awhile before they are ripe.
Pam

that's the fun part. I've gotten 2 pods total. it's not like there's 30 unripe ones on the plant. I've had 2 pods set total. oh well, thankfully I've got lots of other kinds of peppers that were being productive before 100 degree temps became the norm, and whiteflies took over.

I am not going to complain, so far this is our 13th coolest summer on record... although the last few days into most of the next week are 100-103... still cooler than most recent summers. Yeha,, time to pull out the sweaters! :-)
Pam