[Leay]

I hope someone has an answer for a problem that I'm having with my cayenne peppers. In case I'm not calling them by the right name, they are the long thin peppers that turn red when ripe. I have never had this problem with them before, but this year, they are turning black, not red. The plants look healthy so I don't think it's a disease problem. Help please!
Leay

 

[Lannie]

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[Lannie]

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[Leay]

Thanks for the reply, Lannie! I'll watch them close to see if they turn red. I've always planted hybrid hot pepper seeds and I never noticed them going from black to red, but I've been known to ignore my garden for a days at a time. The peppers I planted this year were all heirloom because I want to start saving seed. I've never dealt with this type before so I will watch and see.
Leay

 

[Michael83705]

Some years my Cayennes go from green to black but dry to a very deep red. They cook up the same though. and in all other respects they were normal. I have no idea why they do this though

 

[Leay]

Thanks Michael! I'm keeping an eye on them. I have a couple of red ones coming but they aren't the ones that turned black first??? I dry and grind my peppers to make hot pepper flakes so I can still use the black ones as long as they're OK. I guess color doesn't mean alot.

 

[Guest]

Ditto on what Lannie and Michael said. I'm not certain what triggers the odd color changes but I too have seen Cayennes go first to almost black before ripening. The same will often also happen to Jalapenos. I think that one of the causes may be excess rain or cooler temperatures. With our freak cold and wet summer in Wisconsin, none of my peppers are behaving normally for color. Even the fool-proof California Wonder green peppers are much darker color than they should be. So, as long as the fruit are solid, it's only a cosmetic problem and I would not worry about it.

Martin

 

[Leay]

Ok, Paquebot! That explains it as I just found a Jalapeno today that was black but otherwise looks fine. I'm in Wisconsin too and I couldn't even plant my garden until June because of all the rain. It was a swamp in there...
The garden is doing great otherwise. Like alot of people on this board though, I'm waiting for all the tomatoes to turn red. I must have 100 green ones and I just know that they will all decide to ripen at once. I can see a marathon canning session coming up
Leay