All types of peppers require a long, warm growing season to produce fruit effectively. This is why they do best in U.S. Department of Agriculture plant hardiness zones 9 through 11, according to the Missouri Botanical Garden. Red peppers and green peppers both grow on the same plant -- the differences between them include maturity, length to harvest, taste, available nutrients and variety.
Red peppers are the fully ripened version of many types of sweet and hot peppers that start out green. Not all peppers will ripen to a red color. Some peppers turn yellow, brown, purple or orange when they mature.
Length to Harvest
The time between harvesting green peppers and red, fully ripened peppers is usually 7 to 10 days. During this weeklong period, green peppers change in color and flavor. For many peppers grown from seeds, it takes 100 to 120 days until harvest. For transplants, you will only have to wait 70 to 85 days for harvest. You can harvest some varieties, such as the "Park's Early Thickset" sweet pepper, 45 days after transplanting.
The flavor of a red pepper compared to a green pepper depends on the variety -- sweet or hot. Sweet peppers taste sweeter if you wait until they turn red. Hot peppers increase in their potency while they remain on the plant to ripen. For instance, a red bell pepper tastes sweeter than a green bell pepper, but a red serrano pepper has a spicier flavor than its green counterpart.
Mature red peppers have more vitamin C and vitamin A in the flesh compared to green peppers. This is true for both hot and sweet peppers that are allowed to ripen fully.
The variety of pepper will determine whether or not it will fully ripen to a red state. For these peppers, a color change away from their initial shade is an indication to harvest. Some peppers, like Hungarian wax peppers or banana peppers are light yellow when ripened. Jalapeno peppers are usually picked while they're still green with some darkened color on the exterior.