Harvesting Peppers – Picking Purple Peppers

Harvesting peppers has started with a bang this Summer 2020 season.  I’ve harvested a few in the past couple of weeks, but now the peppers have started growing in earnest.  And picking my purple peppers looks to be next on the agenda!

Purple Jalapeno Pepper

Jalapenos are among the easiest peppers to grow (at least for me).  Although I am growing two types of jalapenos this year (Purple Jalapeno and Tricked You), it’s the Purple Jalapeno chili pepper that is clearly leading the way.

It’s June 26th and I’ve picked about five jalapenos from the plant, and I think I have at least 10 more peppers waiting to be harvested.  The plant is only about 20 inches tall, and it just keeps flowering and setting fruit with abandon.  I am seriously glad that I only planted one of these, because it will provide a ton before the fall frosts show up.

I’m growing Purple Jalapeno in a 3-gallon fabric pot.  I’m trying to remember to give my peppers a light fertilizer feeding every other week (since they are in containers) but I probably missed a week or two.  In other words — no special treatment.

Purple Jalapeno is an open pollinated pepper variety.  I can save seeds from one of the peppers, and I’ll get more of the same next year.

Buena Mulata Peppers

Buena Mulata is a cayenne-type chile pepper that, if possible, is even more prolific than Purple Jalapeno!  The plant is only about 18 inches tall and I’ve picked about seven chili peppers so far.  I easily have 15 more waiting on the plant!

I’ll pick a few more soon (just to keep the peppers coming), but I want to leave some on the plant for a bit to ripen to red.  I decided to grow Buena Mulata for the chili peppers, but this variety can very easily double as an ornamental pepper plant.

Just like Purple Jalapeno, Buena Mulata is open-pollinated and is growing in a 3-gallon fabric pot.  For that matter, they are actually growing side-by-side.  😀

Picking Purple Peppers

I started picking purple peppers early this month (June).  To be honest, the peppers have not been very spicy yet.  Why not?

Part of the reason is that it hasn’t been that warm yet here in East Tennessee.  While we’ve had one or two days around 90 so far, most of the days have been in the mid 80s.  We had a cool April and May, so the peppers haven’t had the opportunity to “chile up” and get spicy.  But, as we get more into the hotter days of summer, the peppers will start turning their own heat up.

In addition, as they ripen to their final color (in both cases the color is red), the hotter they become.

I’ll be doing a harvest video soon, with not only these two chile pepper varieties but also some others.  I’ll post the link here as soon as I have it posted.

Meanwhile, feel free to wander around the site and enjoy the info (and the peppers).  See you soon!