Bhut Jolokia Pepper - Bring Indoor For Winter?

[ChilliJez]

You're right tlintx. The plant holding part ended up being about 1 litre though I varied it a bit on a whim; slightly biggr reservoir or bigger pot. The only thing I believe is important is to make sure the wick is wet at the start. I added water a couple of times during the winter. It was more convenient to water the top and I didn't have a problem but if the compost was inclined to stay wet it would be better to add water to the reservoir.

So wet string (in some I used strips of capillary matting - I didn't notice a difference) plants roots trimmed 'till they fitted the pot rootball eased into the pot so the wick stayed alongside the rootball not pushed down to the bottom and I set the pots to stand in an inch of water for 15 minutes or so to bottom water then transferred to their winter positions on the reservoir. I hope the pictures show what I'm describing.

I think Scott's advice to wash roots and avoid bringing pests into the house is very sound. I didn't think of it but thankfully I didn't have a problem!

The only other thing I did was to line the window with bubble wrap to cut out a nasty draught that there seemed to be.

I will be doing the same this winter.

[ChilliJez]

One more thing. The plant single plant in the top picture of my previous post is a Cascabel, sown in that pot in late summer. I had done a trial germination on some seeds saved from a store bought dried pepper and ended up keeping one plant. It spent the winter with all the other overwintered ones and was well ahead of plants germinated the following spring.

For that reason I'm about to get some Rocoto and Baccatum seeds sown soon as they're more likely to produce a reasonable crop next year.

[tlintx]

Great pictures! I think I'll copy your setup, I have just about everything on hand.

My goal is happy, thriving, ready to go in the spring plants. I'm hoping I don't need to induce dormancy, since it's really just a few months (December, January, February) that they need to be inside. May not be enough hours of light to keep them happy.

I'm definitely washing mine. When I transplanted the last of my fall plants a few days ago, a thumb-sized tree bug scampered out of the cup! The only bugs allowed inside are spiders. I've been using Tania's mix in some of my containers outside and having excellent results, hadn't thought to try it for houseplants!

I also started a few more seeds (Orange Manzano, Bhut Jolokia, Bishop's Hat) that I intend to raise inside to get a jump-start on spring, so it's good to hear of great results. For our climate, we're supposed to start seeds for spring in December usually!

[pdxwindjammer]

tjg911, I didn't intentionally grow my peppers in Nov. I didn't have time to do anything with them when I left for Italy in Sept. I returned in early November and didn't make it up to my community garden until mid Nov. Pleasantly surprised to find my plants loaded with the ripe Hot Lemon Peppers!

Yes, our climate is MUCH milder than Connecticut! Farmer's Almanac shows first frost date as Nov. 15th but some years it is later.

I am going to overwinter 5 plants this year. I will wash and trim the roots and foliage, plant in 1 gallon pots, place on my work bench at the only window in the garage and just use a light I used to use when making jewelry. I can put that on a timer and rotate the plants every week or so to give them all some light through the winter.

I will report back next year.

[tjg911]

i think your garage, based upon prior comments as to temperature, would be a good place since you don't have a basement. good luck and we'll be interested in how you do. scott in atlanta sound like he knows just how to do this!

tom

[ChilliJez]

Originally Posted by tjg911

i think your garage, based upon prior comments as to temperature, would be a good place since you don't have a basement. good luck and we'll be interested in how you do. scott in atlanta sound like he knows just how to do this!

tom

Tom, I agree with all you say. Particularly that Scott probably knows loads!

pdxwindjammer, I'm glad you have a plan and are going ahead. As you have a window in your garage for some light I'm hopeful you'll succeed.. With my plants on a windowsill some stayed leafy throughout the winter and others looked unhappy and shed all their leaves. Once it warmed and brightened up they all came round so don't be despondent if they seem to be doing badly. Potting soil on the dry side but not completely so and not too warm but not freezing and I think you'll do well.

tlintx, I remembered something I changed last winter. In the pictures posted I drilled holes in the bottle cap to run the wick through. when it came to remove the plant from the bottle pot roots had grown through the wick and into the reservoir below. It was quite traumatic trying to separate these!
Last winter I did the same but left out the bottle caps. I put a piece of fabric inside the base of the pot and ran the wick through a hole in this. That way when I removed the plant from the pot in spring , rootball wick and all could be drawn up through the hole and pottd on.

Good luck everyone. Now I need to get my Rocotos sowed this weekend.

Jeremy

[pdxwindjammer]

Scott, what is Tania's recipe? Where can I find said recipe? Thanks!

[ScottinAtlanta]

Here it is at http://www.tomatoville.com/showthrea...t=tania&page=2, to wit:

I use the same recipe every year and recommend it to all my customers and gardening friends.

1 part vermiculite
2 parts perlite
3-4 parts peat moss
6-8 parts compost or composted manure

For each 10 gallons of mix I also add

1 cup alfalfa meal
1/2 cup bone meal
1/2 cup wood ashes
1/4 cup dolomite lime

I may also add 1-2 cups of coffee grinds, if I have them close by.

[pdxwindjammer]

Thanks for posting the recipe!

I just checked my Fatali Brown plants and they do have peppers on them!

I think I will overwinter my Bhut Jolokia, 1 Fatali Brown, 1 Hot Lemon and not sure what else. I am very excited to try this experiment!

[pdxwindjammer]

I am really pleasantly surprised that I have had success with getting ripe peppers off my one Bhut Jolokia plant. I have about 10 peppers on the plant.

The odd thing is that they ripen so much differently from my other peppers. it is like someone painted the upper half of the pepper orange. Rather than ripening all over and slowly changing color, half or a quarter of the pepper turns orange. I hope this makes sense.

Is that the normal ripening pattern for a Bhut Jolokia?

[falconblack]

I see a few of you have bhut jolokia peppers would I be able to purchase some seeds from you I had some from pepper joe but none of them took,even though I started them on warming tray in wet paper towel they were duds.

[epsilon]

so what are the results of the project? curious to find out. I'd like to try over wintering this year to see if I can't crank up the subsequent production.