Why Bring Pepper Plants Indoors for Winter?

[applestar]

Wow interesting!!! Keep us posted!

[SPierce]

I was just coming in here to check out this thread again. Sweet ;D

Believe it or not, my pepper plant is doing really well by the back door, all it's peppers matured (and I ate them then saved seed!) and it now seems to be concentrating on growing taller. Its moving pretty slow, but I'm still happy that it hasnt' died off!

[applestar]

Bump. Finding this thread useful to review.

[soil]

So I have some wild chilitepins, the seeds I grew came from a wild plant. Anyways these plants are crazy cold hardy. The ones from last year handled temps down to 18-20f. More so than my manzano peppers. Very tiny peppers though but with an amazing flavor.

And as usual I pulled and potted about 30 pepper plants for greenhouse overwintering.

[ElizabethB]

Wow! You northern gardeners really impress me!! You also inspire me to be more vigilant about my garden. I am embarrassed that I got lazy and did not plant my winter garden. I don't plant the super hot peppers. My tolerance level is jalapenos and cayennes. I had 2 of each and they are toast. I probably could have saved them if I had pruned them back. My bell peppers and sweet bananas are still producing. I think I will do some judicious pruning. Unless we have a hard freeze they will survive the winter. Talk about crazy weather - last week the lows were in the upper 30s the highs in the upper 50s. Fire place lit - heater on. Last night the low was 65 and it is already 73. Heater off A/C on.

Thanks for the inspiration and getting me off of my butt and back in my garden.

[ElizabethB]

WOW - What an interesting proposition. Never thought of bonsai for peppers. Please keep us posted on your progress with pictures. I look forward to learning more.

[applestar]

This year's Winter Peppers:
2@ Jalapeño and Brazillian hot lemon that came inside with ripe and green fruits have mostly finished cycling and are starting to bloom and set fruits again



Shopping bagged pepper plants -- Poblano and Golden Summer Hybrid bell -- in the unheated garage, waiting for the extreme pruning and potting before moving inside. (bummed that I didn't get around to digging up Corno di Toro as well.... )

[applestar]

So I have some wild chilitepins, the seeds I grew came from a wild plant. Anyways these plants are crazy cold hardy. The ones from last year handled temps down to 18-20f. More so than my manzano peppers. Very tiny peppers though but with an amazing flavor.

And as usual I pulled and potted about 30 pepper plants for greenhouse overwintering.

You've got the process down! I wish I had some place to overwinter more. I want to keep two of each variety in case of failure, so that limits the overall number. I *may* risk leaving a few in the garage for total dormant state winter-over like you do. Gotta try some time.

Chiltepins are tiny like pinky fingertip, right? How do you use them?

[soil]

Chilitepin mostly Used in sauces and oil infusions, they have an amazing flavor. They are hot too. I've been collecting a lot of the peppers for seed this year because they only have 1-5 seeds each. They germinate slow, and sometimes don't produce fruit the first year, but loads the second and on.

[prettygurl]

I have one sweet pepper plant growing indoors. I am trying to get more seeds to germinate.

This is from the other day.

[applestar]

If you buzz the flower stem of that open blossom with an electric toothbrush, or simply flick or shake the flower truss with your finger/hand during the day, you should see a burst of pollen fall out. This will help to pollinate it and set (another) fruit.

[prettygurl]

I use my handy dandy spiderman electric toothbrush that I got on sale for a couple bucks. It works great.

[applestar]

I was peeking under the 3 mil winter poly tunnel today, and it really seemed to me that the two Corno di Toro plants under there aren't entirely dead even though they've shed their leaves. We're supposed to have another unusually warm day in the 60's tomorrow, so I might just uncover the bed and dig them up to see if they'll make it over the winter in the garage....

This discussion continues in: Subject: 2013-14 Winter Indoor Peppers (and eggplants)

[applestar]

Adding this Q and A for future ref:
Subject: Digging up and bagging peppers to overwinter

Hi, Wow! Single digits for several consecutive days, sometimes negitive single digits~ and you can overwinter tomatoes and peppers in the garage? How do you perpare the plants and do you water them through winter? Do you slowly get the plants colder?

Richard

Peppers can, but not tomatoes (or at least I haven't tried). The garage usually "only" goes down to mid-20's, and peppers have survived as long as it didn't get down below 24°F as long as they were in fully dormant state (after I bring them into the garage lightly pruned (thin non productive and/or excessively long branches) they drop their leaves and eventually any ripened or greened fruits as the temps go down and I stop watering except occasionally so as not to let them dry out completely. I think they prefer to be "nearly dry" while dormant)

When temps get down to nearly too cold, I put them on cardboard and surround them with additional collapsed cardboard boxes and floating covers. Put bubble wrap around the pots to protect the roots, etc. but I don't do that unless necessary, because all the protection interferes with checking on their condition and soil moisture levels.

[DonV]

I bought a couple pepper plants indoors, to the same area I start my seeds (seeds do GREAT). They stopped and slowly "died" got weird white spots on leaves, peppers shriveled, flowers died and NOTHING happened (except slow death). Under growth lights and plenty of warmth.

[kayjay]

I thought I'd share my OW experiment. It was highly successful.

Here are the two original plants, purchased as transplants around my average last frost date in May. This picture was taken June 14, 2014.



I got quite a few peppers from them, and toward my first frost date, I pruned them back, let them settle down outside for a while, started bringing them in at night, then let them go almost-dormant for the winter. They got a light watering once a week. In spring, I hardened them off again.

Here they are on June 17, 2015:



That's a huge head start. Time is tight in Canada. I ended up with about 3 cereal bowls of hot peppers, and now they're flowering again! I'll definitely do it again this year, though I hear the second year is the best. It's too cold and there's not enough light for them to produce over the winter, but it's nice to have some (barely) living house plants.

[Greywolf]

A pepper plant will last several seasons. It is possible in fact that they will be even better the next time around.

It only makes sense to "BRING IN" a good bush at the end of the season. Habaneros especially, once established they flourish on following years

[Dirt Man]

Many years ago I use to save my plants by covering them with glass, old windows, old storm doors, sliding patio doors, cement blocks, bricks.

For several years I used cement blocks on the east, north, west, side of tomato and pepper plants then covered the south side and top with a sliding patio door or storm door. This protected my plants from frost for a month and several freezes down to 28 degrees. The soil holds enough heat to keep the inside warm enough not to freeze for a while. I also experimented with putting a 100 watt light bulb inside the mini green house box to keep it warm after dark. We had ripe garden tomatoes for Christmas dinner many times.

That was back in the days when I was young and full of energy, I can not physically do that anymore. It would be easier and work better to build a 3 side wooden box to move in place around plants then cover 2 sides with glass. Wood is a better insulator than cement blocks.

[Gary350]

That probably depends on the price of plants where you live. A 4 pack tray of plants is $1.47 here in TN. I would not hesitate to pull them up and replace them.

When I lived in AZ plants only camp in singles $5 per plant. I would probably try to same my plants rather than replace them.

We were in northern MI last week near Canada a 6 pack of plants is $5 there. Rather than run the risk of getting a late start I would probably replace my plants.

[jeff84]

I plan to do it because I spent 25 dollars for 50 seeds and only managed to get 10 to germinate and not dampen off, not exactly cheap or easy to replace every year

[applestar]

Here's an overwintered Aji Pineapple. It overcame a mite infestation, bloomed and set all these fruits in spring. I brought it out of the house, harvested the fruits and pruned the plant so I can acclimate it. Actually these 10 pods are less than what it had before since I've been picking them as needed.



I will either uppot it or find a place for it in a garden bed. It should start blooming and setting fruits right away.