How long will my pepper plants grow?

[tomc]

I have half a dozen bell pepper plants still producing, and half dozen cherry bomb pepper plants still producing.....I live in Maine. Weather has been getting colder by the day, but still no temps below freezing at night. Will a frost/freeze kill the pepper plants, or are they hardy to a point below 32 degrees....I feel like in years past I have just pulled them out in early fall, thinking they are done, but this year my plants are still really thriving.....just curious.

Frost will kill your outdoors pepper plants.

Peppers do tolerate root pruning and rather heavy coppicinig. See the Fatali pepper web page(s).

[nedwina]

I have half a dozen bell pepper plants still producing, and half dozen cherry bomb pepper plants still producing.....I live in Maine. Weather has been getting colder by the day, but still no temps below freezing at night. Will a frost/freeze kill the pepper plants, or are they hardy to a point below 32 degrees....I feel like in years past I have just pulled them out in early fall, thinking they are done, but this year my plants are still really thriving.....just curious.

Technically, peppers are perennials. But they're tropicals. They may survive a frost or two, but a hard freeze will kill 'em. Cold temps around 50 for a week or so will stop bud production. (And when they're seedlings, will stunt them beyond redemption.)

Some people pot up a pepper or two to keep going inside during the winter months, (or start & keep in containers) but I have never tried it.

You can throw a row cover ( or even bubble wrap, LOL) over them to keep them warm with the first few frosts of fall, but eventually they'll die. And the peppers themselves will probably become damaged by the cold before they totally wilt out. When frost threatens (like tomorrow night here, yikes!) I pick all the decent looking ones and keep them in my garage. They keep in there for a week or two (or sometimes longer) just fine.

[PunkRotten]

Light frost they can tolerate. There may or may not be some damage. The lowest temp I have heard about was someone had them outdoors in 28F but with protection. They can not survive a hard freeze though. They start to go dormant though as it starts to dip below 50F. If you'd like to keep them then you'd have to overwinter them indoors. Otherwise leave them out to die whenever it gets cold enough. You can prolong the death with protection like I stated. I am in a climate where I can leave them out all year. Lowest it has gotten here was 41F and they made it with no damage.

[nedwina]

Thanks everyone for the responses. More or less what I assumed, but always good to hear back from others to support me. I tried bringing pepper plants inside one year. I put them in my bay window in my kitchen.....none of my windows get much light, and it clearly wasn't enough for the plant to survive.....lasted a few weeks to a month before dying. This year however, I have moved a passion flower plant, and my rosemary plant into my seed starting area in my basement. They're wrapped inside of a mylar blanket tented frame, sitting on a heat mat, temps around 75 degrees, and get 18 hours of shop light/day. This system worked great for my seedlings, so I am thinking it will maintain life of my rosemary and passion flower plant.....and maybe even a bell pepper, and hot pepper plant as well.......

I overwinter alot of plants. One thing I do is check their hardiness zone, and then see if I can replicate that without too much effort, LOL. Rosemary (7a) and passion flower(8b) have done fine for me going dormant in an unheated/attached garage where it doesn't get below 38 degrees. Both can handle cool temps. I just give them a little water now & then and they wake up and start growing in April.

So if you find you're battling bugs or they're not doing well with all that heat & light, try making them go dormant in a cool cellar or garage. Much less work!

[rainbowgardener]

You can let pepper plants go dormant INDOORS in cool storage. Left outdoors when it freezes, they will just die.

There's a long thread here:

[url=https://www.helpfulgardener.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=81&t=30896]Subject: Why Bring Pepper Plants Indoors for Winter?[/url]

"winter pepper torture" about over-wintering peppers indoors. I tried it last year and decided it wasn't worth the trouble.

[nedwina]

Thanks for the advice, I will definitely keep that in mind.....less cost and effort to maintain as well. Can you let pepper plants go dormant, or will they just flat out die?

I did a bit of searching around, and it looks like some pepper overwinterers do the Strip & Snip method of forced dormancy- take off all leaves, prune it back, keep it in temps around 50 degrees, not much light, and then lightly water now & then. But it only works well with peppers whose native locations do get cold.

Be careful! Overwintering is addictive. Overwintering in garages & basements is the gateway drug to greenhouse building.