Why we like to over winter peppers

[ibraash]

Will definitely do that

Originally Posted by ScottinAtlanta

Yes, but a single night at 25-28 can do a lot of damage. Keep a few incandescent bulbs burning in there on subzero nights.

[SacFly]

Originally Posted by BigVanVader

What size containers y'all using?

I grow my plants in grow bags that are about 12 gallons. At the end of the season I hack them way back, cut the root ball down to about a gallon or so and shove them into smaller pots. This makes it much easier to manage them over the winter. In the spring they go back into the big pots.

I've been doing this for 4 or 5 years and have about a 75% survival rate.

[Tracydr]

I'm using 5 gallon pots and grow bags.

[berryman]

Picked a couple lbs Rocotto from my unheated green house this morning. Vines about eight years old, in ground.

[berryman]

Here's the inside..vines about eight ft tall

[swellcat]

Nice. Certainly not one one sees all the time.

Did you start from seed?

Was it a slow grower?

[berryman]

Yes, seed from Baker Creek. Not that slow of a grower, about average I'd say. Been bearing for seven years at random seasons.

[Worth1]

This one over wintered on its own.
I have no idea what it is some sort of squash type pepper I think a red one.
Worth
IMG_20170311_41843.jpg

[ScottinAtlanta]

Report from Atlanta: Folks, I over wintered 200 pepper plants in my greenhouse, and I am already getting ripe superhots (Yellow Fatali). In May!

If you grow peppers, overwintering is essential. Production is 5 times higher in years 2-4, then tapers in years 5 and 6, ending in death. But the plants are phenomenal. Here are some pics of my plants in Atlanta - 4 weeks ago, they looked like sick sticks. Now... The second pic is the Kambuzi pepper - a small orange pepper that can be eaten like a relish.

[Salsacharley]

Ripe superhots in May! Fantastic! 200 plants in your greenhouse! Fantastic! I overwintered a dozen peppers of various types in my garage. Bad idea. Only 4 survived and none were chinense. Next year I will give them a better environment.

[clkeiper]

do you have a problem with insects doing this? I had one bhut Jolokia and the aphids! oh the aphids. even after it went dormant and there were no aphids to be found anywhere... as soon as it started sprouting lo and behold... so did the aphids!

[greenthumbomaha]

I overwintered a habanero for a friend with great success from the advice here. I kept it in a 3 gallon pot in my sunroom over the winter, then got lazy and moved it to a darker unused room. It took off with longer day length.



I'm not into growing hot peppers, but I came across a great sale today. Picked up Chef Jeff's 3 inch pots of:


Crushed Red Pepper (5)
Salsarific Super Chili (3)
Serano (1)
Tabasco (1)
Long Hots (1) (Taste of Italy series)


I want to transplant tomorrow. They will reside on my deck in part shade for now. We are in for a heatwave. A few questions:


My in-ground plants are currently 2 - 3 feet. These sale plants are about 8 inches to a foot tall, with small leaves. With TLC and fertilizer, will they catch up eventually or be stunted and unproductive in the long run?


2) Is there a substantial difference between container growing initially and growing in the same pot vs digging a plant up for fall repotting? I can certainly try with one, but this process with a dozen plants is daunting.


I folded and bought a 32 quart bag of yellow m.g. for convenience. This bag can fill 8 one gallon pots, if I calculated correctly. I have all sorts of pots, but I am looking for the smallest that I can use for future overwintering. Current productivity is not an issue.


I'll be updating this thread in a few minutes with photos after uploading.


- Lisa

[taboule]

Since you don't care about current productivity, 1 gal is an efficient use of space for overwintering.

[greenthumbomaha]

Originally Posted by taboule

Since you don't care about current productivity, 1 gal is an efficient of use of space for overwintering.

That sounds good to me! How many 30,000 scoville peppers do I really need I may try bagging and send seeds to the swap.



I'm a bit confused about Long Hots. It is the Taste of Italy variety, yet it is described as a cayenne. Has anyone grown this ?


Description: This is the classic Italian cayenne-type pepper. Use these 10” long by 1 1/2” wide peppers whenever good spicy flavor is desired. The large upright plant produces an abundance of slightly curved, tapered peppers that ripen from green to bright red, when they are the spiciest, and are wrinkled at the stem end. The thin walled fruits can be dried or used to make hot pepper sauces. Make roasted long hots by tossing in olive oil and salt or garlic, place in a single layer in baking pan, roast at 375 degrees 30-40 minutes until soft and turning brown. Use on sandwiches, sausage or add to anything you want to spice up. Disease Resistance Tobacco Mosaic Virus, Tobacco Etch Virus, and Potato Virus Y.


- Lisa

[taboule]

Peppers interest me and I'm finally transplanting the last few that I started this year.

In previous years, I've had some languish in their small pots for a couple of months or more until things warmed up outside. Once transplanted and established in their new pots, they did eventually take off and produce. I've always done better in pots than in the ground with peppers and eggplant.

This year, with the new garden and the many projects going on at the house, I thought best to keep all planting in the beds, no pots around, to keep things tidy (except for my wife's flowers.) I gave a friend a few plants (toms and peppers) and visited him over the weekend. I was happily surprised that the pepper he was growing in a pot was as tall if not taller than the ones I put in the ground. Same variety but different growing conditions.

Idea for new experiment: I still have a couple I haven't planted. Will put those in 3 gal pots and place them inside the beds so to have as few variables as possible, and will see what happens.