Should I harvest peppers before frost? Absolutely!
Don't let the pepper pods freeze outside on the plants, as they will turn to mush.
Harvesting peppers before frost:
Do you have to harvest your peppers before a frost, but they're not ripe?
Here are our suggestions:
Pick your Peppers:
You can pick the peppers, and if they are close enough to ripe, they may turn color on your counter. Many peppers like jalapeños are often picked green, so enjoy them green – you'll find that super hots are still very hot and still have great flavor when not fully ripened. Check out our post: How to Preserve Peppers for lots of ideas on what you can do with your peppers, whether they are green or fully ripe!
Hang plants:
Some people pick the whole plant and hang it upside down in a dry warm area. The peppers will continue to ripen on the plant this way. But you need room and it can be messy!
This pepper plant above got frozen at a low of 28˚ F overnight, season's over! Can peppers handle frost?
Nope. Pepper plants will be damaged, and the pods can be compromised. A hard freeze will surely freeze the pods and they will turn mushy and are not usable other than for seed saving. Even temperatures under 40˚ F affect peppers negatively, so even if they aren't frosted they can be stunted and stop growing in these temps.
You can protect peppers in hoop houses and tunnels or other structures and keep them growing a little longer at the end of the season. Frost cloth and greenhouse film can keep them much happier during cool and cold nights. If you grow peppers in a short season climate, this method can really help you extend the growing season so you can grow some of the super hot peppers like ajis, reapers and habaneros, which take longer to grow and get ripe.
We like to grow a lot of peppers and super hots in pots as you can move them into a sheltered protected location (a garden bed hoop house with greenhouse film) for the first few frosts to squeeze another few weeks out of production and ripening. We open it up during the warm sunny days in late fall, and close it up at night to trap in the heat. this works for several weeks past the first few frosts. Check out our late October garden bed hoop house peppers video on Instagram »
Too many peppers?
Is there such a thing? We think not. Wondering what do do with a lot of peppers? If you picked a ton of peppers before frost and now you're thinking, now what?! Here are some of our suggestions for some good and easy ways to preserve your pepper harvest:
Happy growing & harvesting!
