De Cayenne peppers that came with the magazine are still green

Bobby Boy

I grew a couple of the De Cayenne peppers that came with the magazine. They are big and healthy with lots of fruit on them, but not one has ripened and turned red. Not even a hint!

It’s the 4th October so I’m wondering if I should give them more time in the greenhouse or harvest them and dry them slowly in the oven. Or could I use them whilst still green or should put them in a drawer and hope for the best.

Does anyone else have this problem?

BobTheGardener

It's getting a bit cold at night even in a greenhouse, so growth will have slowed right down (they need 14C+ to actively grow/ripen.)  If they are in pots, they would appreciate being moved indoors, if you have any windowsill space or a conservatory etc?  They will survive with 10C nighttime temps but will die if it goes below 5C in the GH, so should be ok in there for a few more weeks looking at the forecast.

Singing Gardener

Mine are the same, although all my other chillies and peppers are red. I'll probably end up harvesting the green as they're in growbags in the greenhouse so I can't easily move them indoors.

Simone_in_Wiltshire

I also sowed the GW issue version and they turned hardly red. Middle of September, the plant didn’t look well, I took the chilli off, composted the plant and then cleaned the greenhouse for the winter to come. I stored the chilli in the kitchen. One week later, all chilli were red and ready. 

Bobby Boy

The larger of the two is still producing flowers - as soon as I pluck them off, a couple more appear even though I haven’t fed them for the last ten days.

I think I’ll try what Simone_in_Wiltshire did and see how I get on.

Thanks for all of your replies.