cayenne peppers and cold nights

[tjg911]

seems a lot of hot peppers that are not in the tropics grow in hot dry locations and if at elevation fairly cool if not cold nights - in deserts daytime temps of 90 often drop to freezing at night.

pepper plants due to smooth leaves like basil vs hairy leaves like tomatoes are very easily damaged by frost. last night i failed to cover the cayenne plant and the entire garden had frost on the ground yet the cayenne plant and sun gold next to each other were untouched by the frost. the coldest air is closest to the ground but the air temps at 3' off the ground had to be around 33 or 34.

do cayenne pepper plants handle cold to near freezing w/o problems?

tom

[TZ-OH6]

Last year my hot peppers made it through several frosts that killed off the tomatoes. I noticed two things: the dense leaf cover of the peppers insulated the interior so only tip leaves were killed, and secondly, the leaves although smooth are not as soft as tomato leaves so some that had frost on their surfaces came through just fine. I think that the sugar in the peppers along with the thick skin help the fruit survive frost.


Its a good thing for me because I can really use those warm days after the first frost hits to extend the season.

[tjg911]

tz this is only hot peppers or have you noticed the same for sweet peppers? i still wonder about cold nights in the high desert, daytime temps 90+ night temps 32 or worse. i agree about those warm days after the frosts, i have some green peppers i'd like to see red.

tom

[TZ-OH6]

I don't recall having any bell peppers at frost time last year, but I did have other C anuums of various heats and plant shapes ranging from tall open ancho and pasilla plants to paprika peppers that were growing in tightly with others, and they all reacted about the same to the light frosts. The C chinense habanero types were a little more sensitive than the C anuums and C. baccatums. I picked Habs off of plants that had lost a lot of leaves.


I would say toss a sheet over them on bad nights just to be safe.

[tjg911]

i put a crw cage from a tomato plant over the cayenne plant and each night i put an old bed spread over the cage. it's working but it's getting late in the season. this saturday morning the weather guesser is calling for real cold temps, not sure yet but i'm thinking mid 20's.

i need to harvest the carrots, take the last few cabbages, clean off the last broccoli shoots and cut the parsley, then i can start to rototill. where the tomatoes were, 1/4 of the garden, the weeds got completely out of control. i usually keep the garden clean but with the heat and humidity this year i just gave up and it's a jungle! tilling may be hard thru there as the grasses are 12"+. i'm not too keen on digging them out but i wonder if a 5.5 hp troy built can handle this mess?

so the pepper plant may have 3 or 4 days to go. even the green ones are hot so if they don't ripen i'll pick and freeze them. i need to get the garden tilled so i can plant garlic in november 1st week.