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Applestar’s 2018-19 Winter Indoor Peppers, etc. Garden

I’ll post this year’s winter indoor garden thread here in the Pepper forum rather than Tomato forum since it’s not looking very good for tomatoes this year, but I brought inside overwhelming number of peppers to overwinter again.

Here are some of the lot that had been hurriedly brought into the garage yesterday, ahead of the forecasted overnight frost. Sure enough it had hovered between 33 and 32°F since 2am, and there is a heavy frost on the ground.

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- Notable ones in these photos are Black Scorpion Tongue Ladybug, Jalamundo, Maui Purple, Pasilla Basie, Rainforest Variagata, Sun Thai

Also making note of Fish and Bolivian Rainbow (...and Marimo :wink: )
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...I will post about the fate of the ones I left outside to fend for themselves later — I Was hoping to save some by covering them, but the sustained near-freezing temps might have done them in.

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There are a few other regulars in my Winter Indoor Garden including turmeric which came in earlier —

Subject: Who is growing Turmeric?
October 13, 2018
applestar wrote:I am SO THRILLED!!!

Tonight’s forecasted low is 40°F and I was going through my annual, last minute frenzy to bring cold sensitive container plants inside or move them at least to the somewhat more moderate brick patio from their various summer vacation spots.

I had left the turmeric until the last possible minute as the sun went down, because the roots had cracked the pot — in Three as it turned out. After NOT finding a suitable pot to transplant them in, I gave up and just plopped the very solid broken pot-shaped rootball/mass in an available plastic pot to bring inside the house, and when I put it down by the porch light, I realized — it HAD BLOOMED!


Here, imafan has been posting that HER turmeric are blooming, and I was wishing mine would bloom ...someday... and, unbeknownst to me, it had quietly bloomed and the flowers are already past their prime.

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— so striking yet dainty - pure white with blushes of pink and magenta and maroon throats.
As well as ginger (center 2 photos), citruses, coffee, tea, avocados, mango...etc. in the Green Room jungle —

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...and here are the pineapples and orchids, more coffee, etc. under the premium Winter Wonderland lights.

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The BIG pineapple is the offset that grew from the plant that fruited. After just one short season of growth, it’s almost as big as the plant that fruited had been. Maybe it will fruit next year? I’m going to keep it warm and well lit over the winter, along with seedling Key Lime which I found out prefers warmer winter temperatures than other citruses.

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As usual, I have started to Morning Mist these plants that have been moved from outside to inside for the cold months. Right now, the indoor humidity is not too bad — 50’s% — since we have not needed the A/C or the heat very much and they have only operated sporadically during the day and night, if at all.

But I feel they are accustomed to their morning dew, so I mist them heavily until dripping wet. As it gets colder, the central forced air heat will be on more often and then continuously, and, over the course of winter, the RH will decrease no matter what I do, until by early March when it finally starts to thaw, indoor humidity will be at worst levels — as Low as 20’s. And the plants will manage to acclimate to this and will not suffer too much while they are mostly dormant, but drier air will promote the more resilient pest mite infestation while inhibiting the beneficial predatory mites.

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As I mentioned earlier (or elsewhere), I bring my container plants inside after a good windy rainstorm, but I don’t take any steps to spray them down or treat with insecticide. This means some pests stow-away ...as well as beneficials — (I had a grey treefrog that spent most of the winter among my plants one year).

So far, I’ve found and dispatched 4 large slugs. :twisted:

I came across this one a while back. Sorry it’s a little hard to see since I had just misted all the plants when I noticed it. I wasn’t sure what this 1/2 inch insect was, but it reminded me of the Praying Mantisfly without the praying mantis-like forearms and eyes... and no wings, so I left it alone... and I saw it once more last week and again yesterday.

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...so I decided to do a casual search... and so far, my impression is that it really looks like a Green Lacewing, except this one doesn’t have any wings. So far no corresponding image has turned up and no mention of greenlacewings losing their wings.

I did note in the course of looking up greenlacewing lifecycles, that the tiny spherical cocoons I have been noticing here and there
Look like green lacewing cocoon rather than spider eggsacs like I had thought. So that’s another clue....

Hmmm? :?: :|

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I guess I’ll show what’s going on in the Winter Garden, though these are mostly incidentals and maybe not so exciting....

- The citruses need some shaping at this time. I try to avoid cutting long branches by weighing them down when I can. Their vicious thorns are also being trimmed As time permits. Some of them have long 2 inch thorns, and some of them have numerous tiny 1/2ninch thorns.
... I’m pretty casual about this process and use anything useful/handy that I have available.
- The one with toy coffee pot lid hanging from a branch is my tea bush (Camelia sinensis var sinensis).
- Most overwintering peppers don’t need shaping and training until later, but I’m using drinking straws as branch spreaders and hanging a pair of scissors to create a downward sweep on this Black Scorpion Tongue Ladybug pepper.

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- some of the fruits have ripened after being inside

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- I’m still encouraging this Sun Thai to keep setting fruits since it won’t quit blooming :D

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- I was undecided about growing tomatoes over the winter, but some of the seedlings in this community pot are attracting my attention 8)

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Very Inspiring.
I am trying Tabasco, Green pepper and an unknown pepper to overwinter, I'm trying with no lights , only light is from the window. I don't expect them to make it but we will see, If they make it I'm going to try grafting a few to the Tabasco root stock.

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Applestar; were your peppers, for indoor wintering, raised in containers? Have you successfully lifted & 'containerised' any for moving inside? And can they survive till spring with fairly low light levels? Reading your interesting posts its never clear to me how much artificial light you provide for the different plants you keep going.

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Peppers are easy to lift and pot up, they will survive even if they are not strictly potted up. I go to extremes, so only the favored ones are carefully potted and put in good light if I want them to continue to fruit during fall/winter, or, during the spring flush of new growth, so they would grow good sturdy branch structure for the coming season.

To dig up the pepper plants, I use the garden fork and go all the way around, deep. Then using my bare hands/fingers I explore the loosened soil around the plant for thick feeder roots that radiate out. I use steady pull to get as much of those feeder roots as I can without breaking them. The rest of the pepper rootball is usually very small. Once I save the feeder roots, I find it’s OK to just dig up/lift with garden shovel and slide the rootball on top of coiled feeder roots in doubled or tripled plastic grocery/shopping bags. If I lost too much soil around the roots, I toss in some more garden soi, or add potting mix on top later.

They can stay in the grocery bags until ready to be potted up....or not. Less “loved” ones have spent the entire winter in their grocery bags — just be sure to use newer bags that will not get brittle and fall apart before spring.

- Leafless dormant or pruned-to-sticks peppers in cold temperatures in the 30’s to 40’s don’t need much light at all — north window, even.
- non-blooming, non-fruiting peppers will “rest” if kept in low temperatures like 40’s to 50’s and will not need bright light. Give them less water and let them slowly yellow, dry, and drop leaves. East or west window might be sufficient.
- peppers with green fruits that you want to mature should be getting south window light and kept warm-ish 50’s to 60’s.
- peppers that you want to encourage blooming and fruit setting should be in 60’s to 70’s with maximum light. South window with moderate supplemental light — I leave the light on from sun up until my bedtime ...so approximately 15-16 hrs. Or under shoplight but they can go on the ends of the fluorescent tubes since they don’t need as much light as tomatoes — THEY get the premium brightest spots in the center zone of the tubes.

(...hmmm... it just occurred to me that you might have less daylight than I do during the winter, so you may need to adjust your lighting strategy accordingly. But my window exposure analogy is based on my experience and basic idea about what kind of light you get when growing houseplants on window sills and window-side stands in NJ. )

This year, I really don’t have good photo record or examples of saved peppers for overwintering, but maybe this one will give you some idea —

Subject: 2016-17 Winter Indoor Garden
applestar wrote:Yesterday -- mad rush to bring in these peppers. They look wilted, but no wonder since they lost most of their roots. They perked up after being potted up, or even in their bags after being watered and put in shade.

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-- the trick with digging up peppers, I found, is to NOT use a shovel which will cut off the long feeder roots, sometimes too close. They seem to have a tight cluster of shorter fragile roots and extra long feeder roots radiating in all directions. I use garden fork to loosen up the soil all around the plant, as much as 2 feet out (4 foot diameter), then lift up the foundation rootball, then use my bare hands to explore and find the feeder roots -- they are wiry and strong but will break if bent. I steady pull to recover as much as I can from the loosened surrounding soil. Put the nearly bare-root, root ball in doubled plastic grocery bag, then pile some of the soil on top of the roots to keep from drying out.

---

I think these made it -- 32°F since midnight and 30°F official temp this morning -- was so worried....

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Applestar, thanks for all that detailed information. I'm encouraged to try lifting my Corno di Toro, still with fruit; maybe even retrieving a couple of Anaheim tossed on the scrapheap. Night temps scheduled for near-freezing this week. ....

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I’m determined to put more effort in caring for my container tea shrub. Up until now, I have been somewhat cavalier, and have taken only minimum care not to let it die. To inspire myself, when I brought it inside before frost along with other non USDA Zone 6 hardy plants, I Uppotted it into a fancy glazed pot I got from my Mom.

It’s currently sitting on a spare bed-side stand in the green room, but the room needs to be organized better. But while it’s at a convenient well-lit height, I decided to prune and train it for better branch structure for next year. I’m going to keep pruning and shaping it into what I will consider a “pleasing shape” and at the same time, harvest the tea leaves.

Fall-harvested mature leaves are called Ban Cha and branch-tip twigs are called Kuki Cha. Usually harvested around early October, before the shrubs are pruned for the winter to shape and prepare it for mechanical first harvest in spring.

After lightly steaming and roasting, and tearing up the big leaves and rolling the pieces, I have about 1/2 cup of somewhat packed tea leaves and tip twigs which when dried will maybe yield enough for two pots (I use enough leaves to obtain about 4 servings per tea pot).

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*In case you are new to my Winter Garden, I name various growing areas in different rooms*

From my Green Room jungle —
L ; big/oldest seed-grown coffee with two younger seed-grown coffee, turmeric, citruses to the left with one of the mango in a bucket in the back ground
Top Right — little compound leaves are dwarf moringa
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Bottom Right — cluster of aloe that was neglected in a paper ice cream tub over the summer, alternately drowned and parched, has made a recovery


Cool Gang area —
An after-thought tomato. Not even sure what variety this is....
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Winter Wonderland —
Orchids are brightening up the Family Room :D
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Looking good, Now I'm green with envy!

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I have 2 potted rosemary plants. This winter, I have been keeping one in the unheated garage and the other in the house in the Green Room.... As expected, the one in the cold 30’s to 40’s°F garage is looking better —
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...than the one in the Green Room which is on a low cabinet (an old TV stand=sofa side table height). The leaves on the one inside are starting to curl and there are signs of mites. Decreasing humidity is not helping.

I will probably move the one in the Green Room to the floor level in search of coolest in-house micro-climate, or to the Garage so it will not suffer and decline as much during the rest of the winter. I don’t expect to be able to put them back outside until late March.


...In my experience, these borderline to “just missed” USDA Zone winter hardiness plants are more difficult to overwinter in the house. The winter indoor temperatures in rooms that are comfortable for humans are suited to tropicals (in the upstairs warmer 60’s rooms), sub-tropicals (downstairs 50’s to low 60’s), and are barely comfortable for plants that are hardy up to 2 zones warmer — which would be Zone 8/9 for me in borderline Zone 6b/7 .

Zone 7/8 hardy plants like rosemary suffer in the heated house that is comfortable for humans, but couldn’t survive the outdoors without protective measures that sometimes can fail without diligent monitoring (and in MY case, I won’t go outside often enough during the winter to make sure). If kept in the coldest floor-level micro-climate of the house, they can manage for the most part as long as their other needs are met to minimize stress.

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Here are some greens I started on 12/6 — they have been slowly growing under the Garage V8 Nursery lights. Dazzling Blue Kale looks awesome :D

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- bottom right - I transplanted some of the seedlings in this pot containing 3 “overwintering” pepper plants that may or may not survive in the unheated garage. The greens can take over if they can, and I added some fertilizer so they will have something to grow on.

...IF I’m serious about wanting to save any of the pepper plants in the garage and to really overwinter them, THIS is the time of the year when I need to start bringing them inside. I actually should have started right after Winter Solstice, but we havent had the super cold lows we normally get after Christmas.... yet.

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Last year, I bought a package of ladybugs early and started releasing them in the indoor garden in the fall, but I missed the opportunity this year when we had an unseasonable drop in temperature. Then I didn’t get the opportunity to order them until about a week ago. In the mean time, my overwintering peppers have been suffering from aphid infestations and citrus has (still minor) scale insects making an appearance. I’m seeing ants, too. “Chicken-or-egg” situation, but personally, I believe it’s the ants that bring the pests. We have had some flooding rain, as well as unseasonably warm temperatures — even up to 50’s and 60’s, which would have caused some of the Ant scouts to venture into the house.

Today, my ladybugs arrived in the mail — happily 3 days early (original delivery estimate was 1/7. I discovered the small parcel in the curveside mailbox (they were out there for about 2 hours)

So I released the first squadron after misting all of the plants.
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The ladybugs that looked “dead” in the net bag when I first looked at them in the cold garage rapidly came back to life as soon as I brought the small portion to be released in a lidded container into the house, and they warmed up. The remaining ladybugs were lightly misted from outside the bag and then put in a padded envelope with airholes snipped from the corners and sides, then placed in an open cardboard box in a somewhat dim location of the garage. They should just continue to hibernate in the above freezing garage, and I can release some more as deemed needed.

If we get the “dead of winter” low temps that plunge the garage down to sub-freezing temperatures, I will put them in DH’s bait fridge in the garage so they will continue to be chilled but not freeze.

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Released 2nd team of ladybugs a couple of days ago. They scatter quickly and I have trouble spotting them afterwards. Often, they are endlessly circling the rim of a container, some inevitably head towards the window frame, and others cluster around the lights. Some are just plain dumb and I find them floating in the drip tray or find they have immediately wandered into spider webs. I might rescue a few of those, but I don’t want to short the spiders and deprive them of what to them are unexpected treats either.

After all that, by following days, it feels like I can only find one ladybug actually patrolling the plants in each area, and I get anxious, but I really shouldn’t release too many at once since their food source is limited. I can spray some ladybug nectar but I want them to forage for food first.

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A new kind of mite infestation I’m dealing with this winter is Red Citrus Mites. I may have had them before and didn’t notice them, or it might/likely be that they are rampant because I didn’t get and release predatory mites for the first time in 3 years.

Out of all the citruses, my two seed-grown Key Limes were first to start leafing out. I’m not sure if they are first because they are early or because they are adapted to sub-tropical Florida and can take the 50’s night time indoor temperature vs. other citruses? Or maybe they are more resistant to Red Citrus Mites, or maybe they are hosting some predatory mites that are Patrolling and protecting the tender new growths.

Often the leafnode buds of the citruses are blasted by sucking pests like scale insects or aphids as well as mites. But hopefully the Indoor Garden Patrol ladybeetles are starting to make a difference....

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— did I mention that the key lime leaves smell like key lime fruit/juice? I added few fresh leaves to a bottle of store bought not from concentrate organic lime juice to hopefully impart some key lime fragrance. I’m thinking maybe I could make key lime scented simple syrup when it’s time to prune them.

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Here are my winter greens — they of course survived the dip down to 28°F in the unheated garage, but with daytime temp mostly in the 30’s, not much higher than mid-40’s, growth is slow.
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In contrast...I peeked at the mini cabbages I started in the fall under the insect screen tunnel outside in the garden BEFORE we had the single digit drop in temperature. At the time they looked like they were hanging on, but I’m not sure how they are doing now.

...SPINACH is a nightmarish puzzler. I keep trying but only a handful manage to sprout and grow indoors or out. I’m not fond of raw spinach, so 2-3 leaves harvested at a time doesn’t work very well, even for my “innovative” creations, unlike lettuce or kale — at most, maybe an omelette for one.

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I started 5 varieties of lettuces to try:

Anuenue
Blushed Butter Oaks
Jack Ice
Olga Romaine
Optima

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Expected overnight low a couple of hours before dawn is 3°F with windchill between -15 to -20°F. It’s already dropped to 28°F in the unheated garage.

- I’ve loosely draped the V8 nursery with plastic sheeting and the figs near the garage door have been wearing fleece blankets since the last depth of winter freeze.

- Just like last time, I put the stand-by hibernating ladybeetle Indoor Garden Patrol —in their net bag inside ventilated padded envelope — in DH’s bait fridge in the garage so they will not be exposed to the extreme freezing temps.

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The lettuce seeds had sprouted when I checked on them yesterday. I had placed them in the Cool Gang corner of the warm family room between a vertically positioned 2xt12 shoplight and a foil lid, but obviously the light was insufficient, so I moved them to the garage v8 nursery. Our single digit low temperature plunge seems to be over, so it shouldn’t get below 30’s in there now, and even the new seedlings should be able to take it. I’ll leave their cover on for a little bit longer.

Here they are, along with the other greens, etc.—
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I started a test batch of micro dwarf tomatoes — 4 seeds each of Aztek and Pinocchio Orange. I don’t have my seed starting area set up yet, and in any case, beginning of February is still too cold indoors without steady bottom heat from a heatmat, and certainly too cold in the garage V8 Nursery with most I can hope for being 40’s°F. But micro dwarfs don’t take up much space, so I’m hoping to tuck them in somewhere among the Indoor Garden plants... hopefully without suffering from mite attack.


The new lettuce seedlings and other greens are happy enough out there though —
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...also, many of the fingering potatoes I used for dinner ... oh, maybe a week ago? ... had sprouted in the pantry, so I planted some of the sprouting eyes for fun to see if they would grow. One of them grew a lot faster than others which are just starting to show some green. I transplanted them all to to this 2.5 gal container today:

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Everything looks great.

You need one of these, lol
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Some Dazzling Blue kale and spinach leaves in a big bowl. They were tossed into a big stock pot of chicken soup DH made.

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DH found a snake coiled up in the front corner of our garage this morning and ushered it outside with a snow shovel — he said it was resisting by attacking and biting the shovel.

It might have wandered in in the last few days when we had the garage door open and doing something. But it might explain the occasional rustling noises I had heard while in the garage with my Winter Indoor Garden over the winter. I had always thought it was mice that inevitably get in the garage, but, this winter, we really didn’t have the mice incursion from the garage into the house we have had before. Our kitties only dispatched a mouse once as I recall.

It might also explain why, when I ushered the kitties out to the garage for mouse patrol, having heard “a rustle”, they had hurried right back into the house through their laundry room kitty door, without hanging out in the garage. Do you suppose kitties would have scented the snake and considered it dangerous? Or else they didn’t find any signs of mice to interest them.

Spring peepers are chorusing outside now, as are grey tree frogs. So I think the snake will be fine outside.

...what was interesting to me was that DH’s description of the snake matched the one I have been seeing near the pond in the last couple of years, but shorter. This might be a 2nd snake.

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This was the first time I've kept a pepper plant alive through winter; a 'doux d'espagne' that I dug up last fall. I pruned & replanted it in a 2L milk carton and it sat on my office desk with indirect window light and minimal watering. Transplanted in spring, it has now been giving me very nice peppers since late August.

I hope to do the same this fall with more peppers and some tomatoes. Possible candidates are 3 'late blooming' peppers in large pots. I suspect their roots were too warm in the (black) pots and they have grown very slowly; only now, approaching mid September, have they begun to make flowers. How should I deal with them now, for the best chance of bringing them through winter? Remove the flowers perhaps; prune the plants? they're still green and healthy. I'd prefer to leave them in the big pots but do I need to trim the roots?

My one overwintered plant is fruiting about 3 weeks earlier than those started from seed in the spring.

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PEPPERS — Yep. I have not stopped overwintering peppers ever since I began. :()

When do you have to bring them inside?

This would be —

(1) at beginning of sustained overnight lows of 45°F or lower … or
(2) the day before predicted overnight frost

— depending on whether you want …

(1) the plants to continue to bloom and develop fruits to harvest by placing them in ideal light and temperature locations indoors … or
(2) you will allow the plants to immediately enter into hibernation mode by placing them in cool but above freezing storage maintained by relatively low light that will allow them to ripen near mature fruits left on the plants then yellowing and shedding leaves. Fruits can be stripped/harvested green or after they have colored up.

(1) For the plants you want to continue to bloom and fruit until Persephone Days* (I think of these as 2 weeks before and after Winter Solstice - YMMV - it depends on your latitude ), best practice is to root prune and trim about a month before first average frost in your area.
  • They can be re or uppotted with fresh potting mix and fertilizer/dolomitic lime (or minerals supplement like Azomite, crushed granite, seaweed) if they are already in pots, OR can be planted in pots for bringing in.
  • I have also simply root pruned (garden spade plunged straight down and up just inside dripline to cut roots without digging up) and pruned ground-planted ones to initiate new branch root growths without potting up immediately at this point
  • Upper foliage pruning should focus on building good light admitting structure — remove inward growing branches, shorten and remove total branches by about 1/3 of entire plant, cull excess fruits (don’t have to remove all but leave reasonable/sustainable number for enjoying — can also leave the fruits on if expecting to mass harvest before frost)
  • Bring into minimum 60°F indoor space before sustained 45°F overnight weather, and place in well lit daylight supplemental light location with at least 12 hrs daytime lighting (I use same setup as my seed starting with 16 hr light)
  • If kept in sufficiently bright location at temperature above 62~65°F they will continue to bloom and set fruit if flowers are pollinated with vibrating electric toothbrush until Persephone days, unless they had recently mass colored/matured a crop, then they should be allowed to rest by keeping in lower light and temperature
(2) For plants to overwinter “in storage”, what has worked for me is
  • In the day(s) before forecasted first frost, go around loosening the plants from ground with garden fork and basically yanking out with minimum soilball — only enough to fit in tripled plastic grocery bags. Keep more roots/soil if loaded with fruits.
  • I keep them in the windowless unheated garage (sometimes but not always after roughly pruning and culling fruits on extra long branches)… with a single or double 4ft fluorescent shoplight 24/7
  • Gradually reduce watering but maintain moisture levels sufficient to nurture fruits as they color up and are harvested.
  • Once remaining fruits stop blushing or start to show signs of stress, cull them and finish harvest. This usually doesn’t happen until the garage is starting to feel the freeze outside and the leaves have wilted. Prune the branches by cutting off all twiggy side branches and establish a good foundation scaffolding — leave at least Y form with joint knobs at terminus. Reduce watering to once a week — barely moist.
  • Nothing else is needed unless the storage location temp is expected to fall below approximately 28°F. Some will die/not recover at this temperature, less chance of survival below 24°F — can add protection with frost blankets, cardboard box surrounds — DEFINITELY INSULATE FLOOR UNDER PLANTS — but if you bring inside to above 50°F, they need to be potted up and given sufficient light — doesn’t need to be strong light unless you want it to grow and fruit over the winter.
Regardless of light and temperature, they will start growing massive numbers of new leaf buds and shoots after days start to lengthen — typically late January~mid February for me. Plants kept in low-light areas need to be provided with supplemental light, and “bareroot” bagged plants need to be supported — add potting mix and fertilizer or plant in real pots.

Watch out for aphid and mite attacks. Also keep eye out for hatching slugs and other pests. I don’t fumigate my plants because I believe predators are coming in along with pests, and I won’t have chemically treated plants in the house anyhow. I buy additional predators (ladybugs and predatory mites) in late fall and sometimes 2nd deployment in mid-late winter.

*PERSEPHONE DAYS*
The Persephone Period - Napa Master Gardener Column - ANR Blogs
https://ucanr.edu/blogs/blogcore/postde ... tnum=28043

Vanisle_BC
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Applestar; Much thanks for the very full reply. I won't try to keep my plants fruiting indoors. My remaining question is about the need & purpose of root pruning. It would be convenient to just bring the potted plants in for branch-pruning and hibernation, undisturbed in their pots. Have you tried leaving the roots un-pruned in the past?

- And any special tips on tomatoes vis-a-vis peppers for over wintering indoors ?

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applestar
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Ha. I didn’t expect a response from you until later. Reread my post because I’ve been editing and re-editing, and I don’t have to record that I edited.

Root pruning is undervalued. I realized its necessity for peppers in the course of yanking out those winter storage plants — peppers seem to grow radiating very long exploratory roots while maintaining seemingly compact rootball. So if your potted plants experienced any drying during the growing season, it’s likely to have grown those exploratory roots that have encircled the pot.

You might only have to tap / slip the rootball out, tease out the encircled thick roots and cut them even with the rest of the thin fibrous roots that are likely surprisingly compact. Then slip the rootball right back in

… or maybe trim a little as long as you have it out to reduce the diameter by 1 inch to 2 inches (shave 1/2 inch to 1 inch all around). This will become a better option especially if the plant tries to grow before you are ready to repot and put outside in spring. Alternatively you can just uppot before the growths start but that is prime seed starting time, you know.

Since as you said, the plant is currently blooming, producing, and loaded with fruits, you could hold off on this process until they have been harvested and you are keeping the plant in non-productive state for the winter.



Tomatoes have a completely different set of issues and are actually more difficult to overwinter — this is surprising considering they seem more robust during the growing season. I’ll post in detail later. Which varieties were you thinking of keeping?

Vanisle_BC
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Applestar, In my turn I'm surprised at your quick reply. In my own case it's thanks to (thanks ?!) pain getting me out of bed at odd hours of the night.

My peppers in pots have just barely begun making flowers; no fruit. They do look very healthy. You are right in assuming they went through at leat one big wilt due to drying out. From your remarks it seems I'd better take them out of the pots for root trimming; then I can hold them through winter with some soil in less bulky containers. I like 2L milk cartons - tall enough to accept lots of root yet not take up much room standing grouped on a table.

Next year I think all my peppers will be grown with irrigation 'in the ground' - no pots.

Tomatoes I grew this year:
Ailsa Craig
Camp Joy (Chadwick's Cherry)
Jaune Flamme
Longkeeper
Moneymaker
Sungold
Sweetie

I hadn't got round to deciding which ones I'd try keeping alive till spring. Any comments?



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