2013-14 Winter Indoor Peppers (and eggplants)

[applestar]

I've been harvesting the Trinidad Perfum -- this is the second bowlful:

Last of the tomato harvest and Trinidad Perfum

Etkezi Paprika is starting to bloom again:

Etkezi Paprika

Another pepper in bloom (this is actually Golden Summer Hybrid bell pepper) and an eggplant:

Eggplant is looking ragged but surviving so far, though it seems more prone to problems:

Eggplant and Peru White Hab

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Dug up, grocery bagged peppers and eggplants stored in the uninsulated garage for overwintering in dormant state:

Garage eggplants and peppers

[applestar]

De Arbol is starting to change color and turn red

De Arbol

Here is a nice view of some variegated Fish peppers, shiny dark green Scotch Bonnet and remaining Trinidad Perfums that have fully ripened into the golden yellow mature color:

Fish, Scotch Bonnet, and Trinidad Perfum

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[applestar]

These Fish peppers started turning red, too.

Fish pepper

Also, as I mentioned in the Winter tomatoes thread, I went and bought a pair of electric toothbrushes yesterday and have started to buzz the pepper blossoms along with tomato blossoms to stimulate pollination and fruit set.

The Fish pepper plant to the right that has the heavily variegated green striped ivory fruit is currently full of blossoms.

[applestar]

Another picture of de Arbol before I harvested the red ones

De Arbol

Same for Fish peppers

Ripe and "green" variegated Fish peppers with Jalapeño in the back

Another Fish pepper starting to ripen:

Ripening Fish pepper among green Kootenai tomatoes

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Most of the peppers including Etkezi Paprika, Peru White Hab, Golden Summer hybrid bell, and Corno do Toro are all blooming and I'm buzzing them with the E. toothbrush every chance I get. . Trinidad Perfum was just harvested so I think it's resting.

[rainbowgardener]

It's awesome, Applestar! The one time I brought a bell pepper in for the winter, it was all I could do to keep it (barely) alive. It never did bloom indoors.

Just out of curiosity, what is it that is chewing on your pepper plant leaves? The Etkezi Paprika especially, if I saw it outdoors, I would think slug damage. But your indoor garden doesn't really come complete with slugs does it?

[digitS']

I will try a Super Chili in the house this winter. I grow them every year - they do about the best for me - but have never brought a plant indoors. Right now, they are in my greenhouse but can't be there for long. The heat won't be turned on out there until March. . .

Well, the Super Chili turned out to be a Thai Dragon. I knew there were some in the garden but forgot about one in a pot.

The pods stretched right out and have now matured red! I may as well pick all that are on it . . .

Why isn't this happening with the 1 potted tomato I brought in to the greenhouse? That poor thing won't last much longer . . . It was the mother plant for my hybridizing effort this summer. The fruit is now almost 90 days from bloom. I can't hardly believe it! I knew I was pushing things too late with moving pollen but figured that it would need just a week or 2 in the greenhouse. That would have been about 50 days and somewhere in early October!

What I think happened is that the plant got too cold outdoors before I brought it in. It is now in a very slow decline - old leaves drying and new leaves shriveled. I just want the 5 tomatoes to mature! I've picked off the others and there those "special" tomatoes sit - green forever. We will get some real cold weather before too much longer and things will freeze in the greenhouse! I bet I'm gonna have to pick 'em green & hope the seed is mature.

What a difference with the pepper. It came in about the same time!

Steve

[applestar]

Steve, I think you've described the conundrum of the tomatoes vs. (hot) peppers.

Peppers need greater heat to germinate and warmth to bring the seedlings up to speed, and can't go out until at least a week later than tomatoes, yet they are perennial where tomatoes are generally not. They go dormant when temps fall and will resume growth in a month or so if brought inside in the fall, and the roots and hardened trunk/stems can survive the winter where temps remain in the upper 20's but tomatoes will decide that their time is up and go down fast.

I guess it's also dependent on variety because some of my tomato plants looked like sticks but started to grow vigorously once temps cooled down and didn't go down until hard frost. Maybe the ones that can't survive the cold have asymptomatic virus or something that have already weakened them.

If you can keep the tomato plant warm enough, it will expend the last of its energy into ripening the fruits even if it's dying. Keep it watered (maybe with less cold water). You might want to cover it with a floating cover for even just a couple of degrees difference. As long as the greenhouse is above freezing, insulating the roots -- like putting the container inside a cardboard box -- may help too.

Thai Dragon, huh? Sounds like a scorcher!

[applestar]

I would think slug damage. But your indoor garden doesn't really come complete with slugs does it?

Well, it WAS a slug and I didn't discover it for a couple of weeks until I accidentally flooded the container next to it. I came back and realized my mistake, and I was "turkey basting (actually a large pipette -- new this winter... I have three sizes to work with now)"/bailing out the excess water in its drip tray when my eyes focused on the pot not a hand span in front of my eyes -- I was leaning close to see the water in the tray -- and realized there was a LARGE slug sliming across mid way up the side.

I suspected it before then, though, because the holes the plant came in with had multiplied and I knew I wasn't imagining it.

In my defense it was a black one and I probably missed it hiding in one of the drainage holes when I inspected the container before bringing it in.

[gixxerific]

Way to go Apple now you got me wanting to grow some peppers inside, at least they will probably do better than my mators are doing right now.

[applestar]

I've moved this thread to the new pepper forum


For growing inside during the winter, (Potting them up and) moving them inside at the end of the season sometime around or before when daytime high settles in the 50's with night time low in the low 40's/upper 30's seems to be the easy way. (I was covering them at night for a while once this kind of temperature pattern started prior to moving them inside).

I've said it before, but watch out for ants and their aphids. (I found some today....)

I was thinking recently that in the future, I might collect some ladybugs during the summer and learn to keep/raise them in a screened bug box so I'll be able to bring them inside before they start thinking about hibernating. This way, I might be able to put some actively feeding ladybugs on my indoor peppers.

Unfortunately, even though I have plenty of them in the garden during the summer, overwintering ladybugs are rare in my house -- much more likely to find brown marmorated stink bugs.

[Northernfox]

Your plants are looking great!! I am so glad to have access to some green in my life!

I have a small update on mine

I started pruning my peppers. it was painful but for the best!

[ReptileAddiction]

Your guys' peppers are looking great! My peppers (outisde) are almost ready to yank.

[Northernfox]

Lol I wish my outside ones were ready to yank they have Ben out for like 2 months lol.

[gixxerific]

Fine, I'll get off my butt and drop some seed now than.

[applestar]

[applestar]

Peppadew are turning red:

[ReptileAddiction]

Looking great as always!

[gixxerific]

I so wish I had a window I could use. Those peppers look good you are doing a great job Applestar as ususal.

I said I would start peppers a page or so ago which I did. I dropped a bunch of seed for some reason only one popped up and it didin't make it (mice might be the reason for it dissapearing). So nothing for me, my winter trials went to hell fast, I am worried my spring starters will have problems. If so I may just start growing grass.

[applestar]

Don't be discouraged, Gixx. This is particularly tough time of the year to grow anything inside.

Mine have deteriorated quite a bit now. It's the combination of super cold temps this winter has been dishing out, which causes the heater to run constantly and drag down the relative humidity (By lights out, the RH reads 45-48%, then I thoroughly mist in the morning and barely bring it up to 65% or so. Now at mid-day it's already down to 52%) Then there are the ants that have established my indoor garden as their winter aphid pasture. Yep, aphids and more aphids.

I will have to make a decision soon and eradicate them so MY warm weather spring starters will not be affected. I think my peppers are telling me they are getting tired anyway, so I will most likely let them hibernate -- back off on watering, put them in colder areas and give them a stumpy cut (main stem and a few sturdy side branches). This is a good time to do it since they can have their 4-6 week rest during the winter's coldest period, then be ready to leaf out with the longer, warmer days. My "Winter Wonderland" faces SE and right now the sun is rising in the horizon directly facing the window. Sunrise will migrate further and further east to ENE as the days get longer and they will get more sun exposure by late Feb.

I can't prune them down until the aphids are gone because they will suck the tender new pepper leaves dry

[gixxerific]

I may be discouraged but I am not down for the count. I removed all my plants as well, as you know I had problems so I wanted to TRY and take care of that before the spring seeding onslaught.

Sounds to me you are ready for the Praxxus pepper method. This would actually be a great time giving them time to regenerate before there spring debut, good luck with them.

[applestar]

Someone's doing an awfully good marketing job, because I think of it more as a container pepper variation of Fatalii's "Bonchi" method since that is where I first saw it....
https://www.fatalii.net/Bonsai_Chiles_Bonchi

...but who knows who had the original concept

Yeah I have been trimming down my overwintering peppers at some point -- early on in Fall as I bring them in, some time after they drop their leaves in the chilly garage, or just before they start to leaf out as the days lengthen between the winter solstice and the spring equinox ever since I started overwintering them.

Don't know if the garage ones will survive this winter since we had such plunging cold temps, and I lost a couple of the peppers inside (but that's why I try to bring in extras), but I'm starting to prune down the indoor ones as they finish producing fruits, and one of the two eggplants I brought in the house is still alive and actually trying to bloom (though I think it's too cold for it to set fruit -- first blossom dropped off last week).

[PennyG]

Looks great!!

[applestar]

One surviving eggplant in the house -- despite suffering from tomato leafminer and aphid attacks, is blooming again.

[beakhouse]

I'm going to have to show my ignorance here and ask a question - when you overwinder peppers, are they in the ground and you pot them up or have they always been in a pot and you can bring them inside? I'm thinking, if I'm going to start from seed soon and they can do well in a container, I won't have to take up in-ground garden space? Perhaps?

[applestar]

It depends on the variety and required container size.

Most of this year's over wintered hot peppers grew in containers last year and were brought in after uppotting or repotting, but most of the peppers in this post were in-ground 32"-48" pepper plants that had been dug up and severely pruned to minimize container size and growing space taken up in the limited winter indoor space.

[beakhouse]

And peppers will continue to grow/produce during the winter? That just opened up a whole new avenue. Can these same plants go back into the ground when the weather warms up sufficiently? If so, at what point do you start with new plants, if ever, to maintain production?

[beakhouse]

I think I just found the answer to my question - I started poking around (you know how it is on forum threads) and am finding huge amounts of overwintering info. My word! Ya'll know yer peppers!

[applestar]

Have fun! I'm slowing increasing the number of variety in my "collection" even if there are only one or two plants per variety -- but you really don't need a whole lot of hot pepper plants for home use.

I probably won't be posting much more in this thread this year -- some of my overwintered as dormant plants in the garage plants have been sent outside on the patio for the rest of spring. I didn't get the chance to bring them in back at the end of Dec-beginning of January timeframe and it got so very cold this winter, so I'm not even sure if they all survived.

The ones inside had become pretty tattered and ragged looking during the winter, and some of them lost all their foliage due to cold or aphid infestation. Some but not all have been pruned down to sticks. I think one that was pushed back in a corner died from neglect, but others are starting to leaf out and grow flower buds and some are setting fruit already.

I'm starting to give them dilute fertilizer, but I don't want to encourage huge flush of growth because I just don't have room for them under the limited number of best light set ups which are needed for the spring seedlings. The inside ones won't be permanently going out for another 6 weeks or so. I'll repot them or plant them in the ground and cut them back again at that point so they can grow good sturdy growth under the sun. They should start blooming immediately.

This eggplant is blooming again -- so far basically bloomed and dropped blossoms all through the winter. I buzzed this one too and it pollen puffed, but I may pinch it and repot it instead of letting it try to grow fruit. The way it grew in this arched way has caused all the buds to grow along the stem. It should be interesting to see how it ends up looking once it gets warm enough to go outside and really take off.

[applestar]

Heh. I was wondering why the pepper photos I posted weren't here. It looks like I posted some interim pepper photos since February in this thread:
Subject: Embrace Your INNER APE –dealing with APHIDS >> got ladybugs