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SPierce
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Unusual advantage to bringing my pepper inside

Strangely enough, while I had all my plants outside, I always had trouble getting beneficial insects to stay in my garden. Now that I've brought my plant inside I'm noticing that the ladybugs that normally come inside for the winter time and congregating around our screen door- are now congregating around my pepper plant- I also have a little spider web/spider hanging out to take care of any little nasty bugs that may work it's way over to attack my pepper plant! With the exception of bees, of course.

I never thought I'd actually end up with better buggage INSIDE my house, than outside! Granted, next summer it'll be going back out.

On that note, the plant's doing strangely well. I've got a branch of new growth and everything. Not really sure if, seed wise, I should wait for them to orange (as it's an orange bell plant) or if I should pick and cook them green- any opinions? I want to save seeds for growing next year, but at the same time they're getting to be "Normal" Bell Pepper size (3-4 inches long and 2 inches round). I'm going to start giving it some fish emulsion with it's water and always do the spray on with the leaves also.

Thanks for reading! I'm just rambling I suppose, my first time bringing anything inside to over winter.

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applestar
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Congratulations! Sounds like everything s going very well. :D

I think if you want the seeds for growing next year, you'll want to wait until the fruit blushes before picking, or even let one or two get completely colored.

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gixxerific
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cool you brought the god guy's in. Hope you don't find the bad guy's as well.

Every winter I fight fungus gnats to no end. :evil: :evil:

But that is the cost of growing outside plants inside.

I had a pepper inside but I composted it. I need the room for tomatoes in a bad way.

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SPierce
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applestar wrote:Congratulations! Sounds like everything s going very well. :D

I think if you want the seeds for growing next year, you'll want to wait until the fruit blushes before picking, or even let one or two get completely colored.
Thank you! I just wish they'd hurry up. I'm impatient- been nursing the thing through one trauma after another since starting it from seed inside on February, this is actually the first time in my entire gardening experience that I've gotten a pepper to grow bigger than a golf ball. I'll be patient and wait for them to start to turn- I'm just afraid that they're going to over ripen and I'll miss out on the chance to enjoy some home grown peppers.

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[quote="gixxerific"]cool you brought the god guy's in. Hope you don't find the bad guy's as well.

Every winter I fight fungus gnats to no end. :evil:  :evil: 

But that is the cost of growing outside plants inside.

I had a pepper inside but I composted it. I need the room for tomatoes in a bad way.[/quote]
Sadly, I think the lady bugs and the spiders were already inside the house- they just made their way towards my plant! Which is why I found it kinda funny and had to post. There weren't any advantageous insects setting foot near it when I had it outdoors. It's sad in a way.

I'm sorry about your fungus gnats and hope you're able to get through them this year. I remember reading about you watching them ruin your plants.

You're growing tomatoes inside? Must have a lighting set up of sort, then. What'd you get? Right now I just have the pepper by a sunny window and it seems to be managing okay. I'm half tempted to bring in a few more containers and try to grow some stuff in the basement.

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rainbowgardener
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gixx has a nice thread going about his indoor tomatoes and how he is growing them:

https://www.helpfulgardener.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=40740

I've never tried indoor tomatoes (except starting seedlings under lights in winter to transplant out). This year I did bring in one basil and one green pepper plant to try to over winter them. The basil is doing great, growing like crazy. The pepper not so much, but it is hanging in there and putting out tiny bits of new growth. I left three little baby peppers on it when I brought it in and they are continuing to grow but s l o w l y...

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SPierce
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rainbowgardener wrote:gixx has a nice thread going about his indoor tomatoes and how he is growing them:

https://www.helpfulgardener.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=40740

I've never tried indoor tomatoes (except starting seedlings under lights in winter to transplant out). This year I did bring in one basil and one green pepper plant to try to over winter them. The basil is doing great, growing like crazy. The pepper not so much, but it is hanging in there and putting out tiny bits of new growth. I left three little baby peppers on it when I brought it in and they are continuing to grow but s l o w l y...
AH! Thank you for the link. I need to try and remember to look outside the vegetable forum every once in a while to see what else other people have growing/going over the winter :D

I guess I'm not worried about the pepper being slow growing- because it was realllll slow growing in the first place. Even when I had it outside it took 7 months just to set blooms and start growing peppers. Did you pot it from the garden or did it grow up in the pot?

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applestar
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My daughter spotted a ladybug -- with no spots .. Likely recently emerged .. Crawling on my bedroom curtain! So I moved it to the kitchen window garden where I have the overwintering peppers. :wink:

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rainbowgardener
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SPierce wrote:
I guess I'm not worried about the pepper being slow growing- because it was realllll slow growing in the first place. Even when I had it outside it took 7 months just to set blooms and start growing peppers. Did you pot it from the garden or did it grow up in the pot?
My pepper wasn't slow growing before, it's just that it is indoors now and not getting enough light.

It started life as a seed/seedling in a pot, was transplanted out into the garden in April and then dug up and put back into a (much bigger! :) ) pot in October. With any luck, if it survives the winter, it will go back out in the garden next April. Seems like a weird kind of life for a plant, but the best I can do. What happens next year determines whether I try this again. I'm not expecting it to keep producing indoors, I don't have the lighting set up for that. I'm just hoping it survives and that then it is off to an early start next year.

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SPierce
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applestar wrote:My daughter spotted a ladybug -- with no spots .. Likely recently emerged .. Crawling on my bedroom curtain! So I moved it to the kitchen window garden where I have the overwintering peppers. :wink:
Hey, so it does work to our advantage :D Better to have a few ladybugs on our indoor plants, instead of having them crawling on our walls :D
rainbowgardener wrote:
SPierce wrote:
I guess I'm not worried about the pepper being slow growing- because it was realllll slow growing in the first place. Even when I had it outside it took 7 months just to set blooms and start growing peppers. Did you pot it from the garden or did it grow up in the pot?
My pepper wasn't slow growing before, it's just that it is indoors now and not getting enough light.

It started life as a seed/seedling in a pot, was transplanted out into the garden in April and then dug up and put back into a (much bigger! :) ) pot in October. With any luck, if it survives the winter, it will go back out in the garden next April. Seems like a weird kind of life for a plant, but the best I can do. What happens next year determines whether I try this again. I'm not expecting it to keep producing indoors, I don't have the lighting set up for that. I'm just hoping it survives and that then it is off to an early start next year.
Ah! I wish I had pepper plants that reacted outside like yours did. I'll keep my fingers crossed for your peppers, too, in that they can safely go back outside without any issues! I don't get enough sun in my garden proper for it, so after it nearly got demolished by slugs while it was in the ground, I moved to the pot and it's been happy ever since. Have a tomato cage (upside down) around it to give it support so it doesn't lean too far one way or another.

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SPierce
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:-() :-() :-() :-()

I woke up this morning- and some of the peppers on the plant are starting to turn orange! I'm so absolutely estatic. Just had to share.

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Tilde
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:clap: :clap: :clap: :clap: :clap:

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SPierce
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Tilde wrote::clap: :clap: :clap: :clap: :clap:
That's so me right now, as soon as I got home from an unexpected vacation today, I took a look at it and ALL the peppers are turning. I gave it a gentle squeeze with my fingers and know for sure that they're all still doing okay- thankfully they're all turning red uniformly.

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gixxerific
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Congrats, I knew you could do it. I have had fruit show up under lights before. The blue spectrum everyone say's "It can't be done" you need the red spectrum plus just using lights is not enough. Well there you don't expect miracles but you will get fruit.

I should have left my pepper plant going but I have too much other stuff going on. It was getting bigger and would have ripened.

I just can't wait to eat fresh tomatoes in Dec. :shock:

Oh yeah another way to save a plant/garden that is doing bad or just nothing at all is to go on vacation. Been there done that, still can't beleive the differeance a vacation makes on your garden.

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SPierce
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gixxerific wrote:Congrats, I knew you could do it. I have had fruit show up under lights before. The blue spectrum everyone say's "It can't be done" you need the red spectrum plus just using lights is not enough. Well there you don't expect miracles but you will get fruit.

I should have left my pepper plant going but I have too much other stuff going on. It was getting bigger and would have ripened.

I just can't wait to eat fresh tomatoes in Dec. :shock:

Oh yeah another way to save a plant/garden that is doing bad or just nothing at all is to go on vacation. Been there done that, still can't beleive the differeance a vacation makes on your garden.
Keeping my fingers crossed for your tomatoes. Can't wait to see pics!

I'm grilling a kabob out of my first fully red pepper tonight :drools: YUM!

and SO true on vacation. SO So true.



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