lighting Lighting time for chillies that had to come in before frost

I live in Canada and we have had our first night of frost.Days are getting shorter and my chillies that were outside in pots have fruits which are not ripe yet. My habaneros need about 6-7 more weeks before I can pick.I have braught them inside and I have them under regular full spectrum lights(I know nothing about lighting but my BF has it all set), question is for how long should we put the timer?
Once they will have ripe fruit and I have picked them, should I continue to grow them under lights or should I cut them back and over-winter in the dark ?THANKS IN ADVANCE !

some say 12/12 other say leave it at 18/6....

And if you want more peppers keep them under the lights all winter.

yesh said:

I live in Canada and we have had our first night of frost.Days are getting shorter and my chillies that were outside in pots have fruits which are not ripe yet. My habaneros need about 6-7 more weeks before I can pick.I have braught them inside and I have them under regular full spectrum lights(I know nothing about lighting but my BF has it all set), question is for how long should we put the timer?
Once they will have ripe fruit and I have picked them, should I continue to grow them under lights or should I cut them back and over-winter in the dark ?THANKS IN ADVANCE !

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You can't overwinter peppers in the dark, you can reduce light levels significantly, but you'll need at least ambient light. The decision of how much light really depends on what you hope to achieve. If you simply want them to survive until next season, you don't need a lot of light. If you want them to survive and keep growing or at least keep the leaves, you'll need to provide more light. If you want it to basically behave as if it were in season, grow and set pods etc. you'll need more light still and you'll need to extend the "day" (the time the lights are on) - at least in my experience 16/8 works well. But you don't really need to worry about the photoperiod with peppers as with some plants.

If you're not on a budget, I say grow that baby all winter long, but anything will work really. I would suggest you keep using at least something like a 20w cfl so that you'll at least have some shoots/leaves on the plant at all times. If nothing else, it's way easier to tell when it needs watering, if there are any deficiencies or other problems with the plant.

I would leave them on for 14-16 hours a day and keep the growing all winter if you can. With you being so far north, just make sure you keep the house warm (60F+), but ideally in the 70F range to keep them growing and peppers.