harvesting chillies

Hi

I have a Zimbabwe Black and a Scotch Bonnet growing on our balcony. The Scotch bonnet has about 6 chillies on it although they are fairly small and green. The Zimbabwe Black has a couple red chillies but the majority are black. The ones that are red are very small.

How do I know when i can start to harvest/use these chillies?

 

Is this the wrong forum for this question?

 

Hi, the Chilli thread, you might get a better response.
CHILLIES 2020

Personally I think you just pick them when they change colour from green, ie ripe.

 

didnt see that one, :( noted though... ill repost there jsut to get a difinitive

 

they are quite small at the moment, i was hoping they would "fill out" a little

 

They won't get any bigger once they ripen.

 

Mine are doing ok outside but only just flowering, well they have 2 or so months to ripen so hopefully i get something The one that is on its 2nd year is doing better: I think this year was not so good anyway.
Black Knight and Corno Rosso are doing the best.

 

I hope you have experience in using Scotch Bonnet. Boy is it hot! What ever you do do not rub your eyes if you pick it with bare hands.

 

... and careful when having a wee...

 

To put chillies in perspective on the Scoville heat scale -
Banana (my favourite) 1,000
Jalapino 3,000
Scotch Bonnet 300,000
Zinbabwe Black 30,000

 

scotch bonnet seems very hot, but most surprised to see there are others much, much hotter! I'll stick to our "Basket of Fire" (circa 80,000 - 100,000) as they are a nice flavour, size and nice to look at on the plant.

 

I grow Shineybrids , scorpions, 7 pot yellow, carolina reaper, ghost, moruga, scotch bonnet, devil's tongue and some of the mild ones mentioned above.

Apparently they really spice up bread. I grow and use them in cooking and baking but I don't eat them.

These are harvested for next year's seeds.

 

You must be very HOT at cooking @CanadianLori with some of those chillies!!! How much do you put in the food and just what takes carolina reaper?