Good day, dear readers! Today we will talk about harvesting peppers. It would seem that it is difficult to simply collect ripe fruits? However, everything is not so simple. It is important to correctly determine the degree of maturity of the vegetable and remove it from the bush in time. Errors in this matter lead to a decrease in the characteristics of the keeping quality of pepper.
When can you pick peppers?
Most often, gardeners prefer to grow sweet varieties of pepper. You can harvest early ripe varieties in early August. Most often, crop harvesting occurs on the last days of the month or the beginning of September.
It is possible to remove and eat the fruits only when they grow to their varietal sizes. Therefore, it is so important when choosing varieties for planting to study the characteristics of the species.
There are no general assembly dates for pepper. There are many factors that influence the rate of ripening of vegetables:
- belonging to early or late varieties;
- bitter or sweet variety;
- climatic conditions of the growing region;
- weather conditions during the season.
It is worth starting harvesting at the stage of biological maturity of the fruit, which is determined by the achievement of the declared color, size and shape.
Varietal characteristics play a key role in the ripening and storage of the crop. Biological maturity of early ripe varieties occurs already after 70 days from the date of planting. For late varieties, this period is about 130 days.
The fruits can also be harvested at the stage of technical maturity. About a month elapses between technical and biological maturity. The exact dates will always depend on weather conditions. The warmer the season, the faster the fruits will ripen. Pepper has the greatest nutritional and taste value in the interval of technical and biological maturity.
The fruits are excellent for both fresh consumption and for preparing winter preparations. However, it should be borne in mind that vegetables harvested during this period will be stored somewhat worse than unripe ones.
Depending on the variety, peppers can produce up to five crops throughout the season. The last collection ends before the arrival of the first negative temperatures.
Harvest Features
Growing conditions play a decisive role in pepper ripening. So, vegetables grown in the open field and in a greenhouse will have different harvesting dates.
Greenhouse plants are not afraid of small negative temperatures. The timing of the harvest in this case, you can choose at your discretion. However, it should be taken into account that stable cold weather will negatively affect the development and ripening of peppers.
Outdoors, the weather plays a key role. Heat-loving peppers do not tolerate frost, so you will have to finish harvesting well in advance before the onset of cold weather.
You should also not deliberately delay the harvest, because this will slow down the formation of new fruits.
Bitter varieties of pepper should be removed only at the stage of full maturity. If you collect it ahead of time, the fruits will not have a characteristic sharpness. The hottest pepper is the ripest. You can start assembling after the completion of the formation of pods. At the stage of full maturity, the fruits will be bright, and the lower tiers of leaves will be yellow and dried up.
Bulgarian varieties have different ripening times depending on the specific species. However, they have one common feature: you can remove the fruits already at the stage of technical maturity, because the fruits are able to ripen outside the garden. You can understand that sweet pepper is ripe by the crackle of the fruit when you touch it.
When harvesting, do not forget about a few more important rules:
- it is worth removing the fruits with scissors or a garden pruner;
- in order for the fruits to be better stored, they should be separated along with the stalk.
Now you know the basic subtleties of harvesting peppers. Good luck to everyone and have a great harvest!
Read also: The leaves of sweet pepper are all in holes. Reasons and solution
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