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How to Ripen Peppers Faster
How to Ripen Peppers Faster. Bell peppers are technically a fruit, but are usually referred to as a vegetable. Peppers are in the same family as eggplants and tomatoes, and range in color from yellow and orange to red and green. Green peppers are the least ripe, but are still edible. If you want to ripen your peppers faster, there are tricks you...
Bell peppers are technically a fruit, but are usually referred to as a vegetable. Peppers are in the same family as eggplants and tomatoes, and range in color from yellow and orange to red and green. Green peppers are the least ripe, but are still edible. If you want to ripen your peppers faster, there are tricks you can use both in the garden and in the home.
Things You'll Need
Paper bag
Tomato
Keep the peppers on the vine as long as possible to promote ripening. The nutrients from the soil as well as the warm weather outdoors helps the fruit ripen faster than prematurely picked peppers. Peppers are ready to be picked by the time they reach 3 1/2 inches long. Green peppers are perfectly ripe, but more bitter than their riper, red counterparts are.
Pair a picked less-ripe pepper and a tomato together to hasten the ripening process. Put the two vegetables together in a paper bag and close the bag. Tomatoes emit a gas called ethylene; the gas helps the pepper and any other produce placed in the bag, ripen faster.
Place peppers in a sunny window or warm room to help them ripen more efficiently. Cooler temperatures slow ripening, but when the mercury climbs, the peppers will ripen quickly. Keep the indoor temperature above 55 degrees Fahrenheit to promote good pepper quality. Ripening flourishes above 60 F, but compromises the quality once the thermometer drops into the 50s.
Tips & Warnings
A red pepper is more ripe than a green pepper. If you have let your green peppers turn red on the vine, pick them and eat them as soon as possible. Because a red pepper is already well ripened, the fruit spoils more quickly than a green pepper does.
