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overwintering Small Leaves, Stunted Growth on Overwintered Plants

Eephus Man

Eephus Man

I managed to successfully overwinter three large, uncut plants this year (I trimmed them a little, but not much). I did not re-pot them this year and left them in their same containers from last year. One is in a self-pruning air pot. The other two in plastic jobbies. All three look similar.

But I'm having problems with getting them to flesh back out properly. One of them is already pumping out fruit, but the leaf arrangements look densely clustered and just not quite right.

Anyone have any ideas on what might be going on here?

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I have two overwintered habs that are very similar. One is loaded with pods, one is just starting to flower. The one with pods has small, densely clustered leaves like yours. The flowering one has nice, big, healthy leaves. My assumption is that the one loaded with pods is putting all of its energy into making fruit instead of growing leaves, and vice versa on the flowering one. I'm sure once I harvest the first set of pods, the leaves will catch up. We shall see.
 
I suggest potting them up and getting rid of some of that old soil on the roots. When you loosen up that rootball, check to see if the roots need some cutting back. After you do this, it should kick the stunted plants into high gear and spit out nice new growth. What have the temps been like there lately?
 
seems like an "energy" imbalance ...

the magic triangle - roots-leaves-fruit(flower) is out of balance and things run havoc, especially now that all the juices get flowing...

1+ for uppotting - even tho I think things will eventually return to their natural "center"...

best of luck, al
 
Thanks everyone. I may try and uppot, though I gotta find a larger pot laying 'round. We'll see...

My temps are all over the place, but they've been outside since...well since last March, minus about a dozen sub-freezing nights in January/February. They lost all their leaves around that time, but since late February/Early March, we see 40s at night every couple weeks (including again last night, which is insane for this late in the year - record low at 43 last night) and then mid-80s during the day for most of the time.

Maybe I'll pot one up and see how much it changes/differs from the other two.

The leaves are just so much smaller than all my new plant outs.
 
Yeah, some plants are slower to recover from being over wintered than others.
Temps and plant variety play a big part
 
Thanks. Can't wait to harvest and get back to making sauce! I'm sure yours will bounce right back... we just need these temps to stabilize!
 
Phil said:
Thanks. Can't wait to harvest and get back to making sauce! I'm sure yours will bounce right back... we just need these temps to stabilize!
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No kidding! I don't know what part of LA you're in, but I'm assuming it's similar.

My bossman is from Lafayette. I spend a little time travelling back and forth each year.
 
They need re-potting. Trim back the plants by about 1/3 as well as the roots. Amend the soil - preferably with some good compost.

Re-pot. They should do well.

Bob
 
Bob, can you explain the trimming back? The other two seem pretty self-evident.

I'm a little leery of trimming back by a third when we're just weeks away from potentially scorching temperatures. Won't that stress them to within an inch of their life?
 
EM -

I trimmed my over-wintered plants about 4 weeks ago and at least by about one third. They actually had to go through some unseasonably cool weather and they're thriving.

I think one third is ok but do less if you want. I do suspect they're rootbound and will really bust out when you trim, amend the soil, and repot.

Good luck!

Bob
 
Looks alright to me. 2+ year plants like to put out that really dense leaf pattern from the old stems. Eventually that should bush out into more expanded growth. I can't say what is optimal, but I think at this stage it might be best to just let it ride. I am still trying to find the best balance between pruning and ignoring in a mild winter climate. The nice thing about overwinters is they pod up really quick. I already have 20+ full size pods on my 3rd year Goat's Weed.
 
PepperWhisperer said:
Looks alright to me. 2+ year plants like to put out that really dense leaf pattern from the old stems. Eventually that should bush out into more expanded growth. I can't say what is optimal, but I think at this stage it might be best to just let it ride. I am still trying to find the best balance between pruning and ignoring in a mild winter climate. The nice thing about overwinters is they pod up really quick. I already have 20+ full size pods on my 3rd year Goat's Weed.
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That's funny. I clean shaved a Goat's Weed this winter and it was presumed dead. It and a Peppadew bounced back with ZERO watering between Christmas and about the end of February. Unreal.

I xplanted the GW into the ground in the front yard and it has pods now. One tough pepper plant!
 
I would personally slide them out of the pots and take a look at the roots at the very least. They are probably root bound, and might have some dead roots. Last year my OW plants looked much worse than yours do this time of year. I found that a lot of the roots were dead, and some snapped like dry twigs. I shook off most of the dirt, cut off all the dead stuff, soaked the roots in a bucket of water with liquid kelp overnight, and planted them in the ground (or fresh potting mix). They bounced back in no time, and were my earliest and best producers. I plan on giving them the same treatment this year when plant out finally comes. In general, I'm much more concerned about roots than foliage. If the roots are healthy, and the soil is good, the plants will find their groove and do their thing.
 
Seriously, GW is one tough variety. Tolerates brutal sun, drenching rain, cold winters, nutrient imbalance,,,and still throws out a big crop of hot and tasty peppers.
 
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