Peppers are edible right from the start. You can pick tiny ones, mature green ones, or mature red ones. No question that productivity will be enhanced if there are fewer fruit on the vine. I'm not sure it will make a big difference, though.

The "green bell", "yellow bell", and "red bell" are largely marketing, they are basically the same. They all have an edible green unripe stage and a colorful sweet ripe stage. Bells may not ripen to red or yellow very easily if the conditions are not right. Pick the green at first then when the plant gets bigger try to let some turn red or yellow.

I don't think that's true about peppers being bitter when "unripe", where "ripe" I guess means a color change. I grow several kinds of peppers, and they're all fine when green. Green bells, Anaheims, Jalapeno, Banana, Habs, etc. True that some extra flavor develops after color change. Somewhat of a more floral taste. Fair to say that they have somewhat more sugars.

The amount of sugar in peppers can be quite different. Bananas have very little, and Hatch chiles (which are usually sold green) have a lot.

I believe lack of water during growth can cause any peppers to be bitter.

I know "Green" bell peppers are sold, they turn red but tend to be lousy at it in a garden setting and are much more productive if you pick those bells green. Thick walled bell peppers have a tendency to rot in Summer in the Midwest if you wait for them to turn red/ yellow/ orange.

I've never read that some green peppers are supposed to be less bitter than other types. "Flavorburst' and 'Golden Summer' have good light green bells that many like, the best tasting in my opinion. Nothing wrong with old 'California Wonder' bells, even with all the newer types, I can get them to ripen in late Summer. Personally, I have found the purple bells to be the most bitter so I don't think they are worth growing, but that is hardly a scientific comparison.

People eat Cubanelle types in the light green stage and don't bother to let them ripen, but they do ripen. Jalapenos are thick walled peppers that take a while to ripen, I think they are used green because they are easier to slice, they get softer when the turn red.

BY the way, I'm not sure what you mean by "red, orange and green peppers." I believe all peppers start out green, and I believe all will change color if left to mature. As I said, the taste will develop if left to turn color, and perhaps that development is more pronounced for some varieties.

I've been underwhelmed by purple bells too robert. And whites. They are pretty, but more of a novelty compared to other better tasting sweets. Browns were pretty good, haven't grown them in a while. I've been more into Italian horns for sweets the last few years.

Green peppers do have a bitterness to them. I've always found that the smaller, still developing peppers are more bitter than full sized green ones. This might be because of their thinner walls while they are small, but it's speculation on my part. Purple bells will eventually ripen to red. When they are purple they are still equivalent to a green pepper.

Rodney

FWIW, it's not just the flavor and sweetness that increase with ripening, nutrients do too. Those bright colors are more nutritious.

Even tho I haven't grown them in a long while, due to pests and disease here, I understand that picking the first fruits as soon as they are full size, but not yet ripe is supposed to encourage more fruiting, as mentioned above, so I did do that when I grew them.

I always remove the first three blossoms/peppers from my pepper plants to allow the plants to expand the root system and grow a bigger canopy. First crown flower and the two node flowers that follow is all I will remove but some people will remove every other set of node flowers up the plant.

Letting those first three peppers grow will slow the growth of roots and vegetation as the plant concentrates the energy from a small canopy and nutrients from a small root system to produce the seeds in those peppers. Removing those three flowers/peppers may seem like a waste but the plant will more than make up for the loss later on. So remove those first peppers.

A ripe bell pepper that changed color is a lot weeter then when it was green IMO. To me it is worth the wait. I do pick jalepenos green, red is oftn to hot and I am not going for sweet like all my other peppers.

One thing I noticed about jalapenos is when I let them ripen to red, they also developed more of those scabby tan striations.

But they definitely tasted better, IMO.

Only pepper I've grown that actually tasted sweet when still green was Chocolate Beauty.

Those "scabby tan striations" are called corking.

https://pepperscale.com/pepper-corking/#:~:text=Corking%20is%20related%20to%20the,sprinklers%2C%20and%20other%20watering%20tools.

Thank you, Cindy. This article answers some questions I had.