gumbo2176
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Re: When to pick sweet banana peppers?

Marlingardener wrote:I've never grown sweet banana peppers before, and haven't seen them in the grocery, so I have no idea at what length/color to pick them. Right now the biggest one is about 3" long and a light yellowish green color. Will someone give me an idea as to when they are best, and what they may look like? This is an unnamed variety--the tag just said "Sweet banana pepper."

Jane, I'll generally pick mine at about 5+ inches in length. I like to pickle them whole along with some Jalapeno or Habanero peppers and much longer than that won't allow them to fit in the jars.

Forgot to mention that they stay pretty much the color you mentioned and every once in a while I'll get just a bit of purple streaking on the skin that doesn't harm the flavor or texture.

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jnunez918
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Location: Austin, TX

I grow these every year. They love Austin! Anyhoo, I pick btw 3-5" based on if I need one in dinner. I let one go once and it started to turn red. Think I'll try pickling this year since I already have 3 decent size on plants and it's just may. Good luck!

greenstubbs
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Location: Far Upper Alabama

Being that your in Tx. and I'm on the left coast, our seasons are long. I've just planted mine a couple weeks ago so I'm still growing. You can pick them anytime! I have left them on the plant until the frost season hits with no problems at all. This is my 11th year growing them. It seems if you leave them on, some will change colors. I've seen red, yellows, and even a few purples and there all good. From what I've heard they change colors due to the sugar content in the fruit, don't know how true that is and doesn't change the taste?

Jason L
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Location: South East Michigan

I had a few purple from my sweet banana peppers this year. I thought something like oh no they cross bred with my jalepeno or something. I didn't really notice any difference in flavor with the purple ones. I like to wait and pick them around 5 inches. I am eating them fresh this year. I intended on canning them but at least one factor this year has prevented me from getting big plants. Two years ago my pepper plants grew to be 4-5 foot tall and I got 7 quarts of jalepeno from 5 plants in a shortened growing season (seedlings planted mid june. All the peppers they produced weren't ready for harvesting until just before fall frosts in oct. I was expecting to get that much from banana peppers this year along with jalepeno. I have about 3 quarts of jalepeno so far and only less than 2 quarts of the banana I already ate all but a few of those. I planted from seedlings just over 70 days ago. I'm in SE MI.

imafan26
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I like to use them as a frying pepper.



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