Hello, this is my first post here. I've done a tiny bit of lurking before signing up, but not much. There's a wealth of information here and after browsing through some of the stickies (especially the overwintering guide) I've decided to make an account. I'm very much a novice, so if I use improper terminology or leave out valuable information please don't hesitate to call me out on it and I'll supplement it as best I can. I apologize in advance for the essay, but I figure it's better to give too much info rather than too little.
This summer I got a "Ghost Chili" plant as a gift from my friend who works at a plant nursery. I've never really been much of a gardener, but she knew I liked hot stuff and that I like to grind dried Bhut Jolokia on my food sometimes. I knew it typically grew in India, so I was skeptical of the little leafy plant in a plastic pot sold at a nursery 50 miles east of New York City (my plant hardiness zone is Zone 7a : 0 to 5 (F) - I figure it's worth working that in somewhere). I stuck it in the ground in my shady backyard and watered it occasionally. I really half-assed this part. After a while it got really big, leafy, and started to flower. It looked really healthy, but I knew it wasn't getting enough sun, even with my extremely limited knowledge, so I moved it to the front of my North facing house. This is when I got a little more serious. The house shadowed where I planted it sometimes, but overall it got comparatively more sun. More time passed and to my surprise I saw a couple tiny little green peppers. By the time it started to get cold (like October) it had tons of half-grown green peppers and only one or two ones turning orange. I didn't give it good growing conditions until far too late in the season and ended up paying the price for it. I had read that they were perennials, so I wanted to try to give this plant and myself another chance and keep it alive to try again next year and that's why I'm here.
I pulled all the green peppers off because I figured trying to grow them would be too taxing on the plant. There were two orange peppers left, but in moving it to a large pot one got knocked off. I took some of the bigger peppers and the orange one, let them sit for a week and ate them. The green ones had very little to no bite, but the orange one had serious heat - I knew this was the real deal. I cut it way down after the cold took out the leaves (it didn't freeze up yet) and left the one lone orange pepper on a branch void of life (picture A Charlie Brown Christmas) . I stuck in in the garage where it received little to no sunlight for several weeks. It occurred to me that I may have misinterpreted some thing I had read, since I'm pretty sure zero light will eventually kill it and the one pepper would slowly sap any life left in the plant, so I decided to move it up to my bedroom near an East facing window. I had noticed even after depriving it of light for weeks there was new growth at the base.
I left it in this spot for weeks. It hasn't received water since sometime in October from rain. It varying degrees of sunlight each morning and there's are more and more growth near the bottom. I had intended to make this thread weeks ago, but I'd put it off. My primary question is: can I keep it in this spot through the winter into the spring, or does it need to go dormant? I know I won't be able to grow peppers like this and that's fine. I just want to know if plants have certain stages and if I keep it growing slowly throughout the cold months I'll be interrupting this, preventing it from producing properly when it gets warm again.
And I was going to make a second thread for this since it's really a separate issue, but I'll keep it to one:
Until today it had that one pepper left on there to continue maturing (I've since pulled it and will prune the last branch tomorrow). That was a rookie mistake because I left it on too long. It looked fine the whole time, it had just started to shrivel lately. I knew they shriveled as they dried, but this one was still on the branch. I didn't put in the time to research if this was a good thing or not. Checking it a couple days ago I realized the side facing the window and away from me was turning black. I'd be a little bummed about not being able to enjoy the one decent pod I'd been able to grow, but I'd be more bummed about losing the seeds. My primary goal is to keep the plant alive to put it in the ground next year, but being able to have seeds to germinate as a fallback would be nice. Since the pepper is starting the go black and mold is beginning to grow I'm worried I'll pass along disease to potential offspring. Creating offspring was just a passing idea, but I'd mentioned it to family members and I ended up with a germination heating pad and a blue/red LED grow light for Christmas, so if I did shoot myself in the foot and let them go bad I'd be extra bummed.
So my second question: can I use any of these seeds, or do I risk growing diseased plants?
Thanks in advance for any assistance you might be able to provide.
This summer I got a "Ghost Chili" plant as a gift from my friend who works at a plant nursery. I've never really been much of a gardener, but she knew I liked hot stuff and that I like to grind dried Bhut Jolokia on my food sometimes. I knew it typically grew in India, so I was skeptical of the little leafy plant in a plastic pot sold at a nursery 50 miles east of New York City (my plant hardiness zone is Zone 7a : 0 to 5 (F) - I figure it's worth working that in somewhere). I stuck it in the ground in my shady backyard and watered it occasionally. I really half-assed this part. After a while it got really big, leafy, and started to flower. It looked really healthy, but I knew it wasn't getting enough sun, even with my extremely limited knowledge, so I moved it to the front of my North facing house. This is when I got a little more serious. The house shadowed where I planted it sometimes, but overall it got comparatively more sun. More time passed and to my surprise I saw a couple tiny little green peppers. By the time it started to get cold (like October) it had tons of half-grown green peppers and only one or two ones turning orange. I didn't give it good growing conditions until far too late in the season and ended up paying the price for it. I had read that they were perennials, so I wanted to try to give this plant and myself another chance and keep it alive to try again next year and that's why I'm here.
I pulled all the green peppers off because I figured trying to grow them would be too taxing on the plant. There were two orange peppers left, but in moving it to a large pot one got knocked off. I took some of the bigger peppers and the orange one, let them sit for a week and ate them. The green ones had very little to no bite, but the orange one had serious heat - I knew this was the real deal. I cut it way down after the cold took out the leaves (it didn't freeze up yet) and left the one lone orange pepper on a branch void of life (picture A Charlie Brown Christmas) . I stuck in in the garage where it received little to no sunlight for several weeks. It occurred to me that I may have misinterpreted some thing I had read, since I'm pretty sure zero light will eventually kill it and the one pepper would slowly sap any life left in the plant, so I decided to move it up to my bedroom near an East facing window. I had noticed even after depriving it of light for weeks there was new growth at the base.
I left it in this spot for weeks. It hasn't received water since sometime in October from rain. It varying degrees of sunlight each morning and there's are more and more growth near the bottom. I had intended to make this thread weeks ago, but I'd put it off. My primary question is: can I keep it in this spot through the winter into the spring, or does it need to go dormant? I know I won't be able to grow peppers like this and that's fine. I just want to know if plants have certain stages and if I keep it growing slowly throughout the cold months I'll be interrupting this, preventing it from producing properly when it gets warm again.
And I was going to make a second thread for this since it's really a separate issue, but I'll keep it to one:
Until today it had that one pepper left on there to continue maturing (I've since pulled it and will prune the last branch tomorrow). That was a rookie mistake because I left it on too long. It looked fine the whole time, it had just started to shrivel lately. I knew they shriveled as they dried, but this one was still on the branch. I didn't put in the time to research if this was a good thing or not. Checking it a couple days ago I realized the side facing the window and away from me was turning black. I'd be a little bummed about not being able to enjoy the one decent pod I'd been able to grow, but I'd be more bummed about losing the seeds. My primary goal is to keep the plant alive to put it in the ground next year, but being able to have seeds to germinate as a fallback would be nice. Since the pepper is starting the go black and mold is beginning to grow I'm worried I'll pass along disease to potential offspring. Creating offspring was just a passing idea, but I'd mentioned it to family members and I ended up with a germination heating pad and a blue/red LED grow light for Christmas, so if I did shoot myself in the foot and let them go bad I'd be extra bummed.
So my second question: can I use any of these seeds, or do I risk growing diseased plants?
Thanks in advance for any assistance you might be able to provide.
to T.H.P. ! I wouldn't use them , theres boat loads of seeds to be had if one just asks . I've got chocolate , peach s.s. , red Bhut seeds if you'd like some . 
