Advice for my habanero plants.

[georgej]

Hey all.

I have two carribean reds (both with about 20+ immature pods each) and one orange Habanero (only two)

Still getting alot of daylight hours here in Japan, and I'm blessed with a South facing window.
However, the temp is dropping rapidly.

Flowers are starting to drop the past few days, but no leaves yet.

So I have in mind what I need to do over wintering, but I would really appreciate the advice so my babies have the best chance surviving.
Should I be removing pods and trying to ripen off the plant?
Should I not worry until leaves start drop before I prune it viciously?

I've been pinching off the new growth to help the fruits, I wonder what the cut off point is though.

 

[Dave2000]

There is nothing you need to do, except either bring the plants inside or pluck off any peppers you want to keep if it is going to be freezing or a frost risk at night. That is if your only concern is to get the fruit ripe. If you had planned to grow the plant all winter long inside then bring them in when night temperature is going to regularly stay below about 50F (10C).

If you only want to overwinter in a hibernated state, which seems to be the case since you mentioned pruning (?) nothing needs to be done except bring in the plants when it gets near freezing. The pods will not ripen any better off the plant than on it, but would be damaged by frost or freezing temperatures. Even when the leaves start falling off there is no need to do anything yet, except keep them from freezing. Leave the peppers on the plant as long as possible to ripen then when it is time to pick them, then it is time to prune the plant back.

 

[georgej]

Cheers for replying Dave. Very helpful!