• Do you need help identifying a 🌶?
    Is your plant suffering from an unknown issue? 🤧
    Then ask in Identification and Diagnosis.

overwintering Overwintering young plants

woody3says

woody3says

Growing season here is from April to late November, possibly into December when frost holds off. The rough spring weather has been hard on a few species I was really hoping to have. Between the severe wind and hail I've lost all my Fataliis and am down to one Pequin. My Scorpions are coming back slowly but have been put behind atleast a month. The new arrival to the neighborhood, Mr Blue Jay, had popped several plants with is overly ambitious hunting tactics as well......

I have enough time left this season to start more seeds. If all went well the new babies would be about the same size as my current plants (around 1 1/5ft and starting to produce) Ive wrote these off for this seasons production, but I'm intrigued by a head start on the '12 season.

Can you successfully overwinter "teenage" plants or do they need to be fully mature?
 
You should have no problems overwintering your youngest plants - age doesn't seem to be a factor. I grew up in Texas, and am familiar with the long growing season there. However, I now live in Cleveland, OH, where the growing season is MUCH shorter. In fact, I've only been able to keep my pepper plants outside full-time for maybe a week and a half now - the temps kept dipping into the 40's before this. We also have a shorter total season - September to early October is about the latest we can expect pepper plants to last outside up here. So if I can start plants now and successfully overwinter them, you certainly should be able to, as well.

If you haven't already checked them out, there are a number of good threads on this site about overwintering. There is also a decent overwintering guide on thechileman.org website.
 
woody3says said:
Growing season here is from April to late November, possibly into December when frost holds off. The rough spring weather has been hard on a few species I was really hoping to have. Between the severe wind and hail I've lost all my Fataliis and am down to one Pequin. My Scorpions are coming back slowly but have been put behind atleast a month. The new arrival to the neighborhood, Mr Blue Jay, had popped several plants with is overly ambitious hunting tactics as well......

I have enough time left this season to start more seeds. If all went well the new babies would be about the same size as my current plants (around 1 1/5ft and starting to produce) Ive wrote these off for this seasons production, but I'm intrigued by a head start on the '12 season.

Can you successfully overwinter "teenage" plants or do they need to be fully mature?
Click to expand...
Not sure what age plants have a better chance of success but i successfully overwintered two different types of "teenage" annum plants over the 2010 winter. My observation was that they were no better than plants planted in 2011, but i'm sure results will vary depending on technique and pepper type.
 
as of right now, i have two chocolate habs and a brain strain in the backyard which were overwintered after having started them late june of last year. they're by far the strongest healthiest plants in my backyard. i actually overwintered them in painted 1.5 liter bottles of coke zero. one the choc habs actually set fruit while sitting in the windowsill, but i should have nipped it instead of allowing it to develop. it had a rougher time adapting than the other two plants.

brain strains are ridiculously strong plants though. that thing didn't even shock after transplanting. compared to the two other plants, that thing has super powers.

i will most definitely be overwintering plants that i'll be starting from whatever i harvest from the brain strain, my nagas and my 7 pot primos. it's far easier than digging out plants, and you get the benefit of a strong sturdy plant that is already budding while the my other starts still look ugly from the move.
 
Chiles are perennial and will continue to grow if you give them light, water and nutrient and keep the temperatures up.
 
What's the purpose behind chopping off so much of the roots before you over winter them? Is it to encourage new root growth when you put it back outside next spring?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top