When Are Chillies Ready to Pick?

Colour change is your best guide. Here’s how to tell when popular chilli varieties are ripe for harvest so you get better flavour, sweetness and heat.

Why wait for colour?

Chillies start green, then ripen to their mature shade. Picking too early gives grassy flavour, thinner flesh and lower heat. Waiting for full colour brings sweetness, complexity, and maximum capsaicin for that variety.

As the fruit ripens:

• Flavour shifts from sharp and “green” to richer and sweeter.
• Heat usually increases as capsaicin levels rise.
• Colour moves steadily from green through intermediate shades to its final tone.

Popular varieties & their ripe colours

Use colour as your main guide, then confirm with feel and overall look.

• Jalapeño: green → red. Commonly picked green for a fresher flavour, but fully ripe fruit turn red and taste sweeter, often with a touch more heat.
• Cayenne: green → bright, glossy red. Wait for full red for best drying and powder.
• Habanero: green → orange (sometimes red, brown or yellow depending on variety). Ripe pods are strongly aromatic with fruity heat.
• Ghost (Bhut Jolokia): green → red or chocolate brown. Wait until colour is even across the pod.
• Carolina Reaper: green → deep, wrinkled red with a distinctive “stinger” tail. Pick only when fully coloured.

Other signs your chillies are ripe

• Glossy skin: ripe fruit look bright and glossy rather than dull.
• Firm but not rock-hard: a little give when gently squeezed, but no soft spots.
• Consistent colour: most of the pod has reached its final shade, with only small traces of green at the stem at most.

If you prefer a slightly greener, sharper flavour, you can harvest a little earlier, but full colour gives the best overall flavour and heat for most varieties.

Can you pick green chillies?

Yes. Many growers harvest some chillies green, especially jalapeños and cayennes, to spread the crop and encourage new flowers. Green fruit:

• Have a fresher, more “vegetal” taste.
• Are usually milder than their fully ripe version.
• Can still be used for pickling, stir-fries, and salsas.

A good approach is to pick a few green pods to use fresh, while leaving the rest to reach their full ripe colour for drying, freezing or fermenting.

Speeding up ripening

If the season is closing in and you still have a lot of green fruit on the plants, you can help things along:

• Maximise light and warmth: move pots to the sunniest, warmest spot you have.
• Improve airflow: thin crowded foliage so light and air can reach the fruit.
• Reduce heavy feeding late in the season: too much nitrogen can keep plants putting energy into leaves instead of ripening fruit.
• Before frost: pick mature green fruit (full size) and let them finish ripening indoors in a paper bag with a ripe tomato or banana.

Summary

Chillies are usually ready to pick when they’ve reached their final ripe colour, feel firm and glossy, and show even colouring across the pod. Picking at full colour gives you better flavour and more heat, while green harvests offer a fresher, sharper taste. Use the variety’s expected ripe colour as your main guide, then back it up with feel and overall appearance—and don’t be afraid to leave a few on the plant to fully ripen for drying, freezing or fermenting.

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