No

Go ahead and pick some, you will get more peppers. Peppers do not ripen that well in summer heat anyway. I pick some of the early peppers and let the later peppers ripen.

rbrt, thanks so much for this advice. I just stumbled onto this thread. For years I've let my peppers go until at least some started to change color, and foregone early harvest. You've freed me up to make a different choice. Thanks again!

Joan

When saving seed, I've often plucked off the early peppers, because they were pollinated before I could put up the isolation cages. That was the case again this year. Removing the first peppers stimulates growth, resulting in larger plants & a later - but heavier - yield per plant. I highly recommend the practice for those with a growing season long enough for those later peppers to ripen.

hmmmm.... I've never found that to be the case. The plants just need to get big enough to want to put out more blossoms. I live in a very HOT summer climate and my peppers are all going strong with lots of green peppers of all sizes. It also helps to fertilize