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indoor How to grow peppers indoors - can they just sit in a windowsill?

obeychase

obeychase

So I have a couple peppers that I can tell are definitely not gonna be ready to start producing this year until probably November, and in Maryland, you can forget it. I want to grow indoors over the winter, as well as the summer and still yield fruit. At the very least, I would like to grow indoors in December and have plants ready to be set out by late March. This way, I will get heaps of peppers all year round. My question is, can I just grow a pepper plant, for example - a Butch T pepper plant, indoors in a sunny windowsill or grow light?
 
  • If I choose to grow indoors, how do I pollinate the flowers to start producing? (I hear shaking the plant inside will cause the flowers to produce.)
 
  • How difficult is it to grow indoors?
 
  • How do I overwinter my current pepper plants for this fall?
 
 
Thanks!
 
1. you can just rub your fingers on the flowers, or use a small paint brush, or a fan, or the shaking like you said.
 
2. Once you find your sweet spot it's pretty easy. Getting to find that takes time, trial and error, money etc. Just need to take care of Light, Water, Soil, Nutrients, Pests. You'll find you have one of the factors figured out but not the others, and takes time to realise what fits best for you. A full grown plant wouldn't fit in a sunny window for instance.. you need a light or a sun room / green house. lights cost money, heating a green house costs money. etc etc. lots of choices.
 
3. overwintering is making the plant go dormant, you don't do much at all besides watering it once a month and keeping it above freezing. You saying you want them producing all the time is not overwintering though. 
 
I'll say "yes" and "well…." 
 
Pollination - chile peppers have perfect flowers - they self-pollinate with only the slightest disturbance, so thumping the pots from time to time works, as does a fan, etc.
 
Indoor growing - The question is how much production do you want from your plant(s)? If you have a window that truly gets full sun most of the day and can position the plant to take advantage of it, that is your best bet. Outside of that, what OKGrowing said is true if you want production - how much do you want to invest? But I'll also give you a caveat with the next item….
 
Overwintering - there are several approaches to overwintering. There is an article pinned to the top of the grow threads, and also a good article on thechileman.org. Basically you can choose to simply bring the plants indoors for the winter, and treat them like any houseplant, or you can take measures to let them go dormant. I've done both. Simply bringing indoors is kind of a no-brainer. Just be sure to keep air circulating around it, such as from a fan. You can use a grow light or put it in a window. If you want it to go dormant, you'll want to pull it out of the pot it's currently in, prune the roots and stems so they are equal distances from the soil line, then repot. Keep it cool, reduce water and fertilizer, then just wait until you see it perk back up in the spring, then start watering and fertilizing regularly again. The question of how much you should prune - I've done down to keeping only about 6 growth nodes, and I've done just enough to make the plant fit nicely where I want it to go - the choice is yours. I can tell you I personally won't do a "severe" pruning again, but that's just me. I prefer starting the season with a larger plant, as they also put out pods sooner. If you give a very severe pruning, the plant kind of has to catch back up before production begins.
 
The definition of "overwintering" is debatable. In my book it simply means bringing the plants indoors and keeping them alive. Difference between me and OKGrowing is where we are at - I am in OH where it snows and chile plants are naturally only annuals, while OKGrowing is in OK and could feasibly keep a plant going without bringing it inside the house. Regardless of whether I let my plants go dormant or not, it's overwintering to me or they'd just be dead.  
 
Its possible to grow very nice looking plants in the windowsill!
 
i currently have a few plants that just get window sill light and they are doing great. Its too cold to put them outside at the moment..(winter)
They look super nice and healthy, but have dropped their first few flowers..probably due to a combination of being young, and it being too cold..
 
anyway its possible if you have the right spot :)
 
20140622_125226_zps1afc45c8.jpg

 
20140622_125604_zps4af1ed66.jpg
 
OKGrowin said:
1. you can just rub your fingers on the flowers, or use a small paint brush, or a fan, or the shaking like you said.
 
Click to expand...
 
Can do this if you don't care about cross polination (or if you really want to have a cross). If you want to avoid this, use different finger (hand) or brush.
 
I pruned back a Butch T, reduced the root ball, put it into about a 3gallon pot, and put it in a window sill over the Winter. It got almost no direct sunlight, but, grew quite well, and was beautiful. Unfortunately, the aphids found it, but, I dealt with them. I plan on doing the very same thing at the end of this season with just 1 or 2 plants. I did not get pods, but, that was not my intention. You probably will get aphids, though.
 
IMHO you will need 5-6hrs or more of direct sunlight to pod and for them to turn.

Veg growth on the other hand is easy even with indirect light.

I'm about to bonchi my older plant as it got too big.

Using a 6x4 area in my sunroom to grow 3 plants under 3 LEDs.
 
I do window sill based growing.
I do need to move the plants from south facing windows to west facing window and back each day to get to about 7 hours of sunlight on a sunny day.
The windows are 145 cm high, so enough for the plants in the pots that grow in peat moss that is about 25 cm high with the plants being at most 90 cm high, making the total plant + pot high a max of 115 cm, so enough room for the plants.
Any seedlings get more light on the tower of grow under my halogen light bulb I use for room lighting.
With a tap for a heating element from a central heater I can have a tropical room for (superhot) seeds to sprout.
It's all el cheapo, but it works fine.
 
I kept a yellow trin scorp and an incan red drop through the winter just sitting in a window sill.  I watered them each probably 3 times total and got a handful of pods in march from my scorpion.
As soon as I put them outside they started to grow and flower and put out pods.  So yes just putting in a window sill is enough, assuming that window gets at least 6 hours of light
 
plaisir8 said:
My winter pest is spider mites. What with the heating on, and no predation.
Click to expand...
Spider mites like dry conditions, spraying/misting your plants regularly may bring some relief.
 
Obeychase said:
So I have a couple peppers that I can tell are definitely not gonna be ready to start producing this year until probably November, and in Maryland, you can forget it. I want to grow indoors over the winter, as well as the summer and still yield fruit. At the very least, I would like to grow indoors in December and have plants ready to be set out by late March. This way, I will get heaps of peppers all year round. My question is, can I just grow a pepper plant, for example - a Butch T pepper plant, indoors in a sunny windowsill or grow light?
 
  • If I choose to grow indoors, how do I pollinate the flowers to start producing? (I hear shaking the plant inside will cause the flowers to produce.)
 
  • How difficult is it to grow indoors?
 
  • How do I overwinter my current pepper plants for this fall?
 
 
Thanks!
Click to expand...
1) Another method for pollination that I use is take a qtip and gently go from flower to flower collecting/spreading the pollen.
 
2/3) The success of overwintering really depends on your setup and what you want to do with your plants (windowsill vs actual lights, stand, fan, etc).  If you just want to keep your plants alive a window will generally suffice, if you want to keep producing during the winter you'll most likely need to set up some lights (I actually made a pretty good setup for around $250 last year).
 
 
Just as a side note, being a fellow Marylander, I wasn't able to get my plants out until just before Mother's day; March would be way too early to be putting plants outside here unfortunately.  Also, we'll probably have to bring our plants inside by Halloween at the latest, so plan for your indoor grow to last from November to late April or mid-May...
 
Sluggy said:
Spider mites like dry conditions, spraying/misting your plants regularly may bring some relief.
Click to expand...
Thanks Sluggy! I bought a humidifier since I don't have the time to be misting them every half hour.. ;)
 
nzchili said:
Its possible to grow very nice looking plants in the windowsill!
 
i currently have a few plants that just get window sill light and they are doing great. Its too cold to put them outside at the moment..(winter)
They look super nice and healthy, but have dropped their first few flowers..probably due to a combination of being young, and it being too cold..
 
anyway its possible if you have the right spot :)
 
20140622_125226_zps1afc45c8.jpg

 
20140622_125604_zps4af1ed66.jpg
Click to expand...
You give me much hope!  I have 10 plants in pots on my patio that I plan on placing on my HUGE bow window that faces south.  That is where they started back in April.  I just wasn't certain how they would fare during the zero degree weather and with the little sun available at that time.  May even snitch a couple other palnts from my garden also.
 
But this will also leave me little room to start next years garden.  May have to break down and buy a larger grow light.  I bought my cats a nice sunblaster self watering one for their catnip earlier.   That's what got me gardening again.  How I missed it!
 
Anyways, my impression is that the window is better than a grow light.  At least in April.
 
my window sill plants are doing better than my greenhouse ones - I have a bhut with 20 pods and counting already. You might not get perfect results or results as good as some who are able to put them outside - but does it matter? Probably not. 
 
Growing indoors is a real pain for bugs though, because they will find your plants. Be ready for that. 
 
moosery said:
Growing indoors is a real pain for bugs though, because they will find your plants. Be ready for that. 
Click to expand...
That may also be a good thing.  Will keep the coonies busy in the winter.  LOL....
 
I have plants that I put on my patio every summer and then bring back in.  Never have bug problems..  Could it be because my cement patio is sooo huge (about 150 feet long)?  The crawlies never make it to my plants, while the flying ones visit inoften.  Or are peppers more prone to bugs in general?  They seem to be leaving my patio peppers alone.
 
Hey I just had a thought....  I grow plants in my kitchen with curtains closed and very little natural light.  They are nice and green.  Heck one of them was in a tiny pot I threw in a glass so it wouldn't get water on my counter.  Darn thing was thriving and living mostly in the water.  Finally yanked and ripped  the roots through the tiny hole and gave it a real pot of dirt.  I have an almost magical green thumb.  Anything I abuse in the kitchen lives even if it starts as a stem.   So why wouldn't plantss thrive on my bow window.  Duh Mama Bearz...
 
Oh this is funny...  I have a christmas tree like plant in my kitchen.  It looked so perfect that my husband insisted that i was watering a fake plant. 
 
Hot Mama Bearz said:
That may also be a good thing.  Will keep the coonies busy in the winter.  LOL....
 
I have plants that I put on my patio every summer and then bring back in.  Never have bug problems..  Could it be because my cement patio is sooo huge (about 150 feet long)?  The crawlies never make it to my plants, while the flying ones visit inoften.  Or are peppers more prone to bugs in general?  They seem to be leaving my patio peppers alone.
 
Hey I just had a thought....  I grow plants in my kitchen with curtains closed and very little natural light.  They are nice and green.  Heck one of them was in a tiny pot I threw in a glass so it wouldn't get water on my counter.  Darn thing was thriving and living mostly in the water.  Finally yanked and ripped  the roots through the tiny hole and gave it a real pot of dirt.  I have an almost magical green thumb.  Anything I abuse in the kitchen lives even if it starts as a stem.   So why wouldn't plantss thrive on my bow window.  Duh Mama Bearz...
 
Oh this is funny...  I have a christmas tree like plant in my kitchen.  It looked so perfect that my husband insisted that i was watering a fake plant. 
Click to expand...
speaking of growing things in windowsills, not a pepper but i have a 3 year old + venus fly trap on my windowsill.
from what I have read they are supposed to go dormant or die over winter. This thing is a beast and never dies. It sits in a little dish of tap water which alone should kill it over time. Algie and sludge is growing in the dish so it probably has its own little culture going on lol
I have never fed it a fly or anything myself. It gets everything itself
20140221_0824241_zps66eae0a2.jpg
 
I'm afraid there are a LOT of carnivorous plant snobs out there who will try their best to convince you that they will die if you don't give them a five star hotel with bed breakfast and a view of the lake. It's thought that VFTs need dormancy to rest and restore energy otherwise they become successively weaker each year - but this clearly isn't happening in your case so I wouldnt be concerned... Oh, they need cold to go dormant I think, if you dont put them out in the cold they won't, so that probably explains the why..but I wouldn't bother by the looks of it.
I'm a big fan of sundew and pinguicula - they do the bulk of my fungus gnat clearups, but this year I've also got a couple of pitcher plants and a VFT that are all thriving with little attention and theyre doing some serious eating! 
 
 
 
nzchili said:
speaking of growing things in windowsills, not a pepper but i have a 3 year old + venus fly trap on my windowsill.
from what I have read they are supposed to go dormant or die over winter. This thing is a beast and never dies. It sits in a little dish of tap water which alone should kill it over time. Algie and sludge is growing in the dish so it probably has its own little culture going on lol
I have never fed it a fly or anything myself. It gets everything itself
20140221_0824241_zps66eae0a2.jpg
Click to expand...
 
Hey I am back! Not too soon to plan and plot next years garden. But I will say, I took too long to bring my patio plants inside and they suffered. But now they are doing soooo wonderful on my bow window! And I have many hundreds of flowers! Am getting some flower drop on the habaneros though. I have been shaking them, do you suppose I should be rubbing the flowers together instead? I imagine this is window related?
 
obeychase said:
So I have a couple peppers that I can tell are definitely not gonna be ready to start producing this year until probably November, and in Maryland, you can forget it. I want to grow indoors over the winter, as well as the summer and still yield fruit. At the very least, I would like to grow indoors in December and have plants ready to be set out by late March. This way, I will get heaps of peppers all year round. My question is, can I just grow a pepper plant, for example - a Butch T pepper plant, indoors in a sunny windowsill or grow light?
 
  • If I choose to grow indoors, how do I pollinate the flowers to start producing? (I hear shaking the plant inside will cause the flowers to produce.)
 
  • How difficult is it to grow indoors?
 
  • How do I overwinter my current pepper plants for this fall?
 
 
Thanks!
Click to expand...
 
 
The growing is fairly easy. Light is plant fuel and will be the limiting factor, so position yours to get as much as possible.  Direct light is much brighter than reflected; few hours of straight sun is worth an entire day of indirect light coming from the blue sky.
 
Unless you have a nice south-facing window, don't worry about indoor pollination. W/o several hours of direct light, the plants probably won't do much by bay of flowering or fruit production.
 
Don't expect miracles.  You can certainly gain a significant head start on the season, but the plants won't really take off until you get them outside.  Provide 80 degrees, a full day of sun, and maybe some fertilizer, and they will go nuts.
 
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