Are you saying staying green up to frost? Never had that problem you probably just need to wait longer for them to ripen on the plant.

Yup, that's normal

If you leave them on the plant long enough, they will change color there too.
(But sometimes that means you'll be playing chicken with having them become too ripe & rot.)

That's funny - for some reason I thought peppers wouldn't change color after picking. Maybe it's just that I don't have a lot of experience with bells, but my Cubanelles certainly don't seem to. Is this a variety differnce, or do they have to be picked at first blush, like tomatoes, to change color inside?

~emmers

emmers,
Last year, my yellow bell produced one lone pepper. I was getting ready to leave on a trip, frost was coming and it only had a blush of yellow. I picked it, packed it in the trunk, took it back home to my mom's with me (a nearly 2000 mile drive) and let it ripen on her counter. There was no way I was going to let my only yellow bell freeze on the plant.

It was quite good. :-)

Peppers will change color after picking only if they're in the process of ripening (have broken color). Even then some may not fully turn their ripe color.

They're not ethylene receptive like tomatoes are for ripening after harvest, though.

I've picked some when they've barely shown signs of starting their color break and ended up with some nice ripe peppers (though a little age stressed and softer by the time they were fully ripe).

I don't have this problem with my Bell Pepper. I have 6 trees and they produce very good. We eat them as soon as we pick them. I love green pepper I am snaking on it all day. It prevents me from eating too much fattening food. I lost 3 pounds I don't know if this was because of the green pepper or not.

I thought bell peppers have to be refrigerated after picking. How long do they stay good on a kitchen counter?

It depends on how hot/cool you keep your house. If you keep them out of direct sun and your house isn't 80+ degrees for a chunk of the day they'll keep better than otherwise.

Peppers do better after harvest out of the light and in cool temperatures so the fridge is a decent place for them.

I don't worry about keeping a pepper out on the counter for a few days, though, unless they're overly ripe or I'm going to be away and the house is hot.

I have some peppers which have some interesting colors as their immature color. Purple and chardonay are about 2 inches right now and beautiful.

When I took the peppers on the road trip (I had some Marconis that went too), it was October and I was traveling to New England. Mom's house was cool. The yellow bell was a little soft and very slightly wrinkled by the time it ripened but still completely edible.

Ideally, I would have left it on the plant to ripen but it would have frozen. An early cold spell came along and temps dropped well below freezing for 2 days while I was gone. Even my raspberries froze.

This is the first time I am growing the colored one. I left Golden Summer bell pepper (still green but mature enough to pick) for about 2 to 3 days on the kitchen counter top. It turned full yellow quite fast. Indoor temp is about 78 most of the time.

Anna