I Am Considering Planting Peppers and then Overwintering Them - Page 2

agee12 · December 15, 2017

Adding on to my previous comment:
I am not unconcerned that I will be plagued with pests, far from it, but I wonder how vulnerable I am if I did not have aphids or spider mites during the growing season, at least not that I noticed. I have DE and Sevin powder, and I can make a DIY insecticidal soap. I actually planned to dust the plants when I brought them in during this last cold snap, I did not get around to it but I did check on the plants at least once a day. I may have lucked out and this is definitely making me think that I should take a more pro-active and preventative approach rather than reactive.

ScottinAtlanta · December 15, 2017

My experience is that aphids and white flies are highly correlated with humidity. Keep your watering sparse, and keep humidity low. Spraying with a neem oil once a week can help but I don't like doing it when seedlings are very small.

zipcode · December 18, 2017

Quote:

Originally Posted by agee12

Did you have aphids and spider mites during the growing season?

I have seen it recommended that you remove the plant give the plant and the roots a good rinsing and then replant in a small pot in new potting mix. I did not do it because I have too many plants (I am overwintering other perennials) and not enough potting mix. B54red brought up the aphid issue earlier in the thread, and I wish for your sake that that matter had been discussed more because pest is a known issue and what needed to be done to address that issue is fairly simple especially since it was only two plants.

Yes, there were some aphids on the plants. No matter how much you try you can't remove them all. I am surprised to see people not having aphids on peppers, they are a huge problems some years (this year has actually been almost aphid free until october).

lexxluthor · December 20, 2017

Love the way they grow after a long winter inside. I hate the yearly battle of the aphids so I keep them separated from the new seedlings and hope they aren't as bad as the previous years.

greenthumbomaha · January 1, 2018

I started a few peppers in pots this year with the intention of bringing them indoors for a winter experiment, like many others have been showing off

. The tall plant to the left is a peppadew started from seed. I let the fruit dry for seeds. no pests or disease. Need to upsize the pot. Hanging in there!

Peppers in the smaller pots were Chef Jeff hots purchased at end of season for a dime each. I gave them a spray with insecticidal soap and a good soak in vinegar. They did have leaf spots, likely bacterial when they were outside. Now they are monster looking craters but the peppers are not showing any disease. If it wasn't 20 degrees below zero they would go outside for a short blast of copper. Yes, that is a Cherry Bomb pepper flowering and the Tabasco is beautiful and full of tiny peppers. I've given them a tiny fert snack only once but they will get some half strength ferts very soon. They are in the sunroom with the heat at 60 degrees but it is warmer on a sunny day.

Most of the windowsill herbs were also sale plants and they aren't doing as well as my seed grown. There is a hibiscus in the mix too. I have my must grow lemon grass out of shot.

I'm having fun except for the big lesions on the purchased pepper plant leaves.

ScottinAtlanta · January 2, 2018

The peppers should not grow while over wintering. They should just sit, lose leaves, die on their outer branches, and silently extend their root ball. When you plant out in spring, prune back to the main joints, and watch them explode as their root balls suck in nutrition.

Tracydr · January 2, 2018

Quote:

Originally Posted by Gerardo

My overwintered plants jumped from the starting line and never looked back.

A good summer for peppers this year.

Good luck

Mine,too. I’ve overwintered both ways,indoors and outdoors protected when I was in zone 9b.
I really like to keep a plant or two of my favorites,I have Datil and Carolina Reaper in my greenhouse this year. Those two plants are going on 2 years old and produced tons last summer after overwintering. I did have aphids last spring in the greenhouse but one package of ladybugs totally got rid of them. I also open the green as much as possible to let the air and good bugs in.
My greenhouse doesn’t have sun so it’s not as great as it sounds. I do run a tiny space heater in it now that I’m in a colder zone. Hoping we don’t have a power outage during this cold snap as I have too many bigger citrus and the peppers,wouldn’t be able to bring them in the house.
I had some peppers and eggplants in AZ that were 5 years old, although I didn’t have as much luck with super hots,they are very cold sensitive. The jalapeño was a tree staked with 3 t-posts and I kept chopping my eggplants back to keep them lower than my head.

bower · January 2, 2018

It may be different in the south, but not all my peppers died back when I overwintered here. Some had green peppers on them that slowly ripened during the winter - that was Jimmy Nardello it was awesome to have a ripe pepper every week or two. Others didn't make any flowers or peppers until we passed the ten hours of daylight mark. But that was before the pests had caught on to the idea of pepper chow.

Aphids, thrips, whiteflies and/or fungus gnats are so rotten pests for indoor peppers. But if not for the pests, peppers actually seem to love our indoor climate. With the thermostat set at 68 F, it's usually a bit colder near a window and can get a lot hotter in sunshine - but not enough to affect fruit set. The moderate temperature is ideal for them, and they don't mind at all the ambient dryness of a furnace heated house. I've had lovely spring crops of peppers from February starts. The big challenge here is when it warms up enough for pests to be active and get in..

greenthumbomaha · January 12, 2018

Quote:

Originally Posted by ScottinAtlanta

The peppers should not grow while over wintering. They should just sit, lose leaves, die on their outer branches, and silently extend their root ball. When you plant out in spring, prune back to the main joints, and watch them explode as their root balls suck in nutrition.

Last year I overwintered a habanero in an indoor dark spot and kept very dry (neglected). I didn't prune them back, but they produced well and early when taken outside.

Sooo, to correct my error, I went back and pruned the peppers in the photo above very hard to get rid of any disease lurking on the leaves. I hope not too hard - now that the day length is increasing I'll know fairly shortly if they bounce back.

Fingers crossed. - Lisa

Gerardo · January 12, 2018

I potted up this guy from a 5 gallon to a NC-20 and it is more or less happy now, except for a cold or Mg issue.
Initially the leaves fell off, sprouts are plentiful now
Osmocote doing its thing.
I expect great things from this plant. .
Soil is mostly Mendo Mix I got at a great price.

Capt Jack's bath upcoming.

GoDawgs · March 15, 2018

This is my first time playing with overwintering a pepper. It's a Gypsy that was grown in a pot over the summer and produced well. Come November when it was getting too cold it was still loaded with green peppers so I brought her in.

I sat Gypsy in another room next to a window and it took the peppers took forever to ripen. This is January 23:

In February it got really warm outside after a week of freezing temps so outdoors she went again after being pruned hard (leaves and roots) and repotted. This was Feb. 17th:

She had to come in for a few weeks lately as it got cold again but today I moved her back outside and she's flushing slowly but nicely:

This is the five gallon (maybe somewhere between a 5 and a 7) pot she grew in last summer so I might bump her up to a 10 gallon this spring. The Wandering Gypsy!

December 15, 2017	#16
agee12 Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Jul 2016 Location: Georgia Posts: 196	Adding on to my previous comment: I am not unconcerned that I will be plagued with pests, far from it, but I wonder how vulnerable I am if I did not have aphids or spider mites during the growing season, at least not that I noticed. I have DE and Sevin powder, and I can make a DIY insecticidal soap. I actually planned to dust the plants when I brought them in during this last cold snap, I did not get around to it but I did check on the plants at least once a day. I may have lucked out and this is definitely making me think that I should take a more pro-active and preventative approach rather than reactive.

December 15, 2017	#17
ScottinAtlanta Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Jul 2011 Location: Atlanta, Georgia Posts: 2,593	My experience is that aphids and white flies are highly correlated with humidity. Keep your watering sparse, and keep humidity low. Spraying with a neem oil once a week can help but I don't like doing it when seedlings are very small.

December 20, 2017	#19
lexxluthor Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Mar 2015 Location: New York Posts: 156	Love the way they grow after a long winter inside. I hate the yearly battle of the aphids so I keep them separated from the new seedlings and hope they aren't as bad as the previous years.

January 2, 2018	#21
ScottinAtlanta Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Jul 2011 Location: Atlanta, Georgia Posts: 2,593	The peppers should not grow while over wintering. They should just sit, lose leaves, die on their outer branches, and silently extend their root ball. When you plant out in spring, prune back to the main joints, and watch them explode as their root balls suck in nutrition.

January 2, 2018	#23
bower Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Feb 2012 Location: Newfoundland, Canada Posts: 6,794	It may be different in the south, but not all my peppers died back when I overwintered here. Some had green peppers on them that slowly ripened during the winter - that was Jimmy Nardello it was awesome to have a ripe pepper every week or two. Others didn't make any flowers or peppers until we passed the ten hours of daylight mark. But that was before the pests had caught on to the idea of pepper chow. Aphids, thrips, whiteflies and/or fungus gnats are so rotten pests for indoor peppers. But if not for the pests, peppers actually seem to love our indoor climate. With the thermostat set at 68 F, it's usually a bit colder near a window and can get a lot hotter in sunshine - but not enough to affect fruit set. The moderate temperature is ideal for them, and they don't mind at all the ambient dryness of a furnace heated house. I've had lovely spring crops of peppers from February starts. The big challenge here is when it warms up enough for pests to be active and get in..

March 15, 2018	#26
GoDawgs Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Feb 2018 Location: Augusta area, Georgia, 8a/7b Posts: 1,685	This is my first time playing with overwintering a pepper. It's a Gypsy that was grown in a pot over the summer and produced well. Come November when it was getting too cold it was still loaded with green peppers so I brought her in. I sat Gypsy in another room next to a window and it took the peppers took forever to ripen. This is January 23: In February it got really warm outside after a week of freezing temps so outdoors she went again after being pruned hard (leaves and roots) and repotted. This was Feb. 17th: She had to come in for a few weeks lately as it got cold again but today I moved her back outside and she's flushing slowly but nicely: This is the five gallon (maybe somewhere between a 5 and a 7) pot she grew in last summer so I might bump her up to a 10 gallon this spring. The Wandering Gypsy!