Photographs of this planting through the 2026 season, oldest first.
The photographs
Week of 8 JuneA Pick-N-Pop Yellow pepper already set on 8 June, hanging point-down from a stalk that arches over and drops under a small flared calyx — pale yellow-green where the hard sun strikes its shoulder, deep glossy green on the shaded underside.Week of 8 JuneA Pick-N-Pop Yellow on 12 June, one long green fruit hanging dead center off a pedicel that arches out of a node stained dark purple-red, fine purple striping running up the stem, and a band of thirty-odd pale beads strung along one big leaf's midrib.Week of 8 JuneA Pick-N-Pop Yellow on 13 June, one green pod hanging clear of the leaves and tapering to a curved point, white flowers nodding down from the nodes above it, in early low sun that rakes across from the right and lays long shadows behind.Week of 15 JunePick-N-Pop Yellow peppers on 19 June, four or five hanging pendant from the forks on thick bent stalks — the largest a blunt cone creased lengthwise and dimpled in a ring at the shoulder, a squarer blockier one beside it, all still green in dappled sun.Week of 15 JunePick-N-Pop Yellow peppers on 19 June, still all green, three hanging from pedicels that arch over at the top, the sunlit one showing faint pale striping under the gloss and the next a shallow crease down its length, the lawn behind thrown right out.Week of 22 JunePick-N-Pop Yellow on 25 June, eight or nine fruits at once and not a blush of ripening in any of them: the big ones hanging down and outward, the younger ones still stubby and near horizontal, every node on the stems stained deep purple-brown.Week of 22 JuneA Pick-N-Pop Yellow pepper on 27 June hanging four blocky fruits with squared shoulders and blunt curved tips, not a trace of ripening color in any of them, all beaded with rain under a treeline that closes off the top of the frame.Week of 29 JuneA Pick-N-Pop Yellow pepper on 29 June with the sun cutting in from the left, so a mirror-bright highlight runs down each hanging cone and the shaded half of the plant goes almost black, and a bristly red-eyed fly sits head-up on the cane.Week of 6 JulyPick-N-Pop Yellow peppers on 6 July, still uniformly green, hanging blocky and square-shouldered off stalks hooked over at the top with the calyx pressed flat to each shoulder, one newly set fruit beside a purple node, all of it rain-beaded.Week of 6 JulyPick-N-Pop Yellow peppers on 9 July, seven of them hanging singly from the leaf axils, each a blocky cone widest at its flared calyx and tapering to a blunt tip — mid-green in the shade, warming toward yellow where the slanting early sun reaches the lowest.Week of 13 JulyA Pick-N-Pop Yellow pepper picked on 16 July, clear yellow through the body but still washed pale green on one shoulder and again at the very tip, three shallow creases down its near side, laid across a deep red towel under flat kitchen light.Week of 13 JulyPick-N-Pop Yellow peppers on 17 July, seven or eight blocky broad-shouldered fruits crowding one plant, translucent chartreuse with no red anywhere, each hooked stalk bending over into a flat calyx, all beaded with water in bright hazy light.Week of 20 JulyPick-N-Pop Yellow peppers on 20 July, eight or nine blocky wedges crowding one plant, the sunlit ones bright yellow-green and those under the canopy far deeper, one creased down its side — a bandaged finger holding the leaves back at the edge.Week of 20 JulyPick-N-Pop Yellow peppers on 21 July, six or seven hanging in one cluster and paling upward, the lowest and largest gone ochre with a broad silvery corky streak down one whole side, every fruit beaded with fresh water under flat overcast light.Week of 3 AugustPick-N-Pop Yellow peppers on 3 August ripening from the tip upward rather than the shoulder, one already gold and orange halfway up while three stay green, dried white droplet-blobs standing on their skins, everything behind them melted to soft color.Week of 3 AugustA Pick-N-Pop Yellow pepper on 6 August, one blunt cylinder ripened to glossy orange-gold and finely speckled pale, hanging clear of two immature green ones of exactly the same blunt-tipped shape above it, in even hazy daylight.Week of 24 AugustTwo Pick-N-Pop Yellow peppers on 26 August hanging side by side and ripened right through to gold, both blocky and slightly lobed with rounded ends, one still washed with dew, under large soft leaves with cut geranium foliage alongside.Week of 31 AugustFive Pick-N-Pop Yellow pods hung together at the front of the plant on 3 September — three already deep gold, the nearest blocky and squared off with an apricot blush across its shoulder, the two above still green — every one wet under a flat white sky.Week of 14 SeptemberPick-N-Pop Yellow peppers, harvested on 15 September: three blocky-conical fruits laid side by side, still beaded with rinse water, two keeping short green stems with the calyx flaring over the shoulder. Flat indoor light on rumpled white cloth.
