harvesting When should I harvest the fruit?

[misterbrownstone06]

lol i didnt sucker him. i told him to have a piece with meat cause the heat will be less intense. he wanted to be the pepper connoisseur, so i let him.
i tried some just now and i must say that the carribean red habs are pretty spicy. my lips were on fire for about 5 minutes. im scared to try my growing jolokias which have been growing for about 2 weeks now.

 

[UltraZelda64]

Even after they turn the final color, I have found the flavor and heat level will continue to change. For most chinense types I prefer to pick them a couple weeks after they turn color. They taste sweeter to me at that stage. You can get a lot of different flavors from one plant and it looks like you are gonna have plenty of pods to experiment with.

I completely agree. I go by "final color". By final color... I mean just that. The final color of the pepper. A regular orange habanero will turn a light yellowish orange before darkening to a deeper orange. A red C. chinense variety may turn an orangish or a slightly red color before turning bright red. A yellow C. chinense variety may turn an even darker yellow when fully ripe. I wait for this, which is usually one or two weeks after the pepper has hit its "final but darker" color.

 

[nitwit]

right on dude,

i have plants i am scared of too(in no particular order):
red carribean
fatalii
chocolate hab
morouga long
7 pot orange, yellow, and jonah
naga morich
trinidad scorpion

i do not know how badly these will burn at both ends

i am even leery of the biker billies but will learn to at least eat those
it may be with some i will opt to pick green to tolerate at less than 100% heat level
to ease into it?