I was given several pepper plants from the father in law when he moved. After transplanting them (late in the season) they took forever to bud, then all of a sudden started fruiting a bunch. I’ve had a decent haul and made plenty of hot sauce and pepper but we had several nights of frost temps and today I went out and the plants were pretty much gone for. I went ahead and picked the fruit but I was curious 1: will these still be hot/semi hot? (I plan on nibbling to be sure) 2: even if they’re hot will the fact that they’re green, change the taste of the pepper in a bad way? (I don’t want to go through the trouble of smoking/dehydrating them if it’s a bust) 3: im fairly certain the top ones are Carolina reapers (correct me if I’m wrong) but I’m not sure about the bottoms…..any guesses? My FIL had about 5 different varieties and probably close to 30 plants and he was pretty sure there where some cross pollinated hybrids in the mix, and over the few years he let me pick what I wanted I can say I saw some that I’ve never seen before and that where hard to match up to the pepper “types” pictures I’ve looked at. Also another question will the plants come back next season? Thanks
by Guilty_Sympathy_496
4 Comments
They can still be very hot when green but not as much when ripe. The flavor will definitely be less sweet and a bit grassy. Other peppers look like habaneros. Also they may change color off the vine but the flavor and heat won’t change once picked from the plant.
Looks like scorpion and habanero to me. My green ones were still pretty hot. I used them to make hot sauce.
Those honestly aren’t worth saving really. They won’t taste good. They won’t ripen. You just end up with green peppers at the end of the season and they get discarded.
If you’re worried about cold and frost, the plants will not come back next year. Look into “overwintering” the plants, or some of them at least. Not a guarantee they live, but the ones that pull through will have a serious head start on any new seedlings you grow/buy.