It's getting to that point in the year when summer days are ending and we're on the verge of fall. It can be an anxiety-inducing time for gardeners, especially those who enjoy a bit of grow your own. Plants like bell peppers might be abundant in fruit not yet ready to pick, making it a race against the disappearing warm temperatures to get them to ripen. Luckily, there's a super simple hack to ripen bell peppers faster, and you can do it in minutes.
If you grow bell peppers in a milder climate, it's not uncommon to feel like you're waiting forever for them to ripen to yellow, orange, and red shades. While you can pick bell peppers when green for a more bitter-tasting crop, achieving a sweet bell pepper requires more patience. But you can ripen bell peppers faster by simply removing small fruits and flowers.
Doing so helps the mature fruits to use more of the plant's resources for ripening. It's a really easy hack to do and doesn't require any special tools, though you do need to follow some rules to ensure you don't damage the health of your plant. Here, a vegetable growing expert shares how to use this method to ripen bell peppers faster.
How to ripen bell peppers faster
'Bell peppers can take a long time to mature, especially if you want them to fully ripen to yellow, orange, or red. Once you see the first signs of changing color on a green bell pepper (a mature, firm bell pepper), it will usually take another three weeks to fully color,' says Veronica Tegen.
If you're looking for a softer, sweeter, and even citrusy bell pepper, you want to aim to harvest when your bell peppers have changed color. You can achieve this more quickly by removing excess fruit and flowers.
'The best way to ripen bell peppers before cold weather sets in is to remove any flowers and small fruit from the plant,' says Veronica. 'This allows the plant to distribute its finite resources to the remaining bell peppers, helping them ripen faster.'
It's as simple as pinching off flowers and using essential pruning tools (like these pruning snips from Amazon) to remove the smallest fruits at the stem. Follow pepper pruning advice when doing this to avoid pruning mistakes.
'When the flowers get pollinated, they each start growing a pepper. That takes a lot of energy, nutrients, and water. That means fewer resources are available to the larger bell peppers, slowing down their progress,' Veronica explains.
'Bell peppers need energy from the plant to ripen. That energy is limited, as the plant only has so many leaves to absorb sunlight and convert it into the necessary resources.
'This is why removing some of the peppers helps ripen the other, more mature peppers faster - more resources are available for those remaining peppers.'
It's less likely that those smaller fruits will ripen in time before the cold weather sets in, so removing them is beneficial to getting a sweeter harvest from the mature bell peppers on your plant.
Just take care not to cut the main stem of your bell pepper plant, as this is required for the mature peppers to continue ripening.
Currently based in Chicago, Veronica has a background in both tech and agriculture. She currently runs a food & garden site based on agricultural research and is a board member of the Midwest Fruit Explorers (MidFEX). She authored "The Ultimate Garden Guide for Growing Asparagus." Prior, she spent 15 years in tech, based in Silicon Valley, where she also frequented as a podcast guest and speaking engagements. She also designed and taught the inaugural Ad Tech course at University of Illinois, where she previously received her BS and MS degrees.
Other tips for ripening bell peppers faster
You can also help bell peppers ripen faster by providing sufficient warmth. This might involve moving a potted bell pepper plant into a greenhouse as temperatures start to drop.
'Their ideal temperature is between 75-85°F. If cool temperatures set in, try removing mulch to allow the soil to get hotter,' Veronica suggests. 'If you're in a really cold climate, try covering the plants with a makeshift greenhouse.'
Things like this greenhouse sheeting cover from Amazon can be used to provide bell peppers with more warmth, for example.
Veronica also notes you don't have to remove only small peppers. 'You can pick large peppers off the plants to also help the remaining peppers ripen.' This way, you'll end up with a colorful harvest of all different bell peppers.
FAQs
Can you ripen bell peppers off the vine?
Yes, you can ripen bell peppers off the vine, though it can be trickier and take longer than ripening them on the vine. Plus, ripening bell peppers off the vine is unlikely to dramatically sweeten their taste, compared to when they ripen on the vine. To do this, your picked bell peppers should be mature. They can then be placed in a warm, dry location with good air circulation. Ideally, maintain a temperature around 70°F.
There are other ways to promote a bumper harvest of bell peppers and maintain healthy plants. This includes fertilizing bell peppers (with this pepper fertilizer from Amazon) while they actively grow and choosing pepper companion plants that will help keep pests and diseases at bay.
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