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overwintering Can I encourage this Cayenne to thrive over winter?

MR2Jay77

MR2Jay77

Afternoon Guys (At least it is here ;)) - I'd like a bit of advice if you will.

This year, total novice "Me" attempted to grow chillies again and surprise surprise, I didn't do great. The one exception was my Purple Cayenne which, although looking awful, produced quite a few pods for me.

Now, I am here to learn and plan to approach things very differently for 2017 but one nugget of information I didn't know was that chillies are perennial. This wakes an interesting idea.

Now, this Cayenne has a great flavour and a nice amount of punch, I'd love to try and save this plant, encourage it to bush out and see if I can get it to flourish next year. I intend to move it into a larger pot (currently it is in a 7 litre pot, I'll move it to a 10 litre or 2 gallon) along with new compost, but what would people recommend I do to try and encourage it to grow better? Ideally I'd like it to bush out rather than being all gangly like it is. (Oh, and I know the weeds need to come out, I hadn't bothered as I thought it was reaching the end of it's life :shh: )

It's always been grown indoors and kept in that very windowsill. Obviously, now the days are shorter it isn't getting as much light and has slowed growth considerably. The final pods are coming off tonight, meaning the plant itself is ready for anything drastic you might suggest.

Here is is (Ignore the little Habenero next to it, that came from a fire damaged warehouse which I have tried to save - growth has always been stunted and what little fruit it bore got to about pea size before turning orange)

Wo9CrS6.jpg


Thanks guys :)
 
As long as you got the light and warmth then it should be ok.
I also learned a couple years a go that their "Perennial", I used to just leave them outside to the winter thinking that was that for the season, what a waste.
 
 
As it's indoors, I don't need to worry about warmth (the gas bill the missus creates is proof of that ;) ) and being in the window, it get light......
 
Is there any way I can ecourage it to bush out? I already thought it was a gonner so anything I can try that doesn't work is no real loss
 
I wouldnt push it, they know when its winter, all my leaves dropped and their inside, new leaves have come but slow and little, the Aphids are the main problems I have.
 
OK, so would you strip the dead leaves off and repot in fresh compost? Maybe feed it a nitrogen heavy plant food once a fortnight over winter to encourage leaves?
 
yup get rid of the dead leaves, repot if you think it needs it, I use organic Fish fertilizer so I dont rely on compost, only if the soil is infested I change it and/or if its compacted and not draining well.
 
If that was my plant  the first thing I would do is give it a good trim back.....or "topping" ....and  don't be scared....I would cut everything from about an inch above from where it branch's out.
I would remove the bottom dead leaves......as long as it gets a bit of water and good light it should start putting out new shoots and toughen up that stem a bit.
This is only what I would do.......good luck with your plant.
 
Thanks SizzleLips - That's kinda what I had read but wanted it confirmed......
 
Ah well, time to get ruthless!! :shocked:
 
Now you hope for the best.....It looks like a stick.....I hope it survives your over winter.
 
My theory is that until yesterday I didn't know they were perennial so I was going to clear it out anyway. Technically, I've got nothing to lose ;)
 
when it doesn't get a lot of light it will look like that. it is stretching out looking for more light.
 
but yeah topping should help some
 
Like you said, "what's done is done" but you probably should have kept a couple leaves as feeder leaves as it'll still needs to perform photosynthesis over the winter.
 
That said, I'm sure it'll bounce back and produce a few leaves that will hold it over until spring.
 
It definitely needs more light in general.
 
Hmmm, OK.
 
Time to work out which room has the most light and move it to there :) There are some new shoots peeking out of the nodes, let's see what happens
 
Now that you cut it back it should focus more energy on growing out those shoots.....all the leaves below your cutoff point were dead or almost ready to drop.....try and get the most light to it that you can and you should be fine....you could buy or maybe borrow some kind of small grow light to help it out through your winter months.
 
It looks like they are pretty heavily watered too. If so, dont water so much. Almost let it show signs of wilting. This could be why youre getting leaf drop, other reason is theres too little light to feed all the leaves, IMO.
 
Also may as well pull out your weeds too.
 
Make sure there is some kind of air circulation or atleast go into the room once or twice a day to fresh up the air.
 
If not enough light it will stretch the new growth.
 
If you repot into fresh soil, note if there is fertilizer already in there. If youre just trying to keep it alive, I doubt it will need much food. Which I am assuming youre trying to do, otherwise youll need more light for any decent sized pod.
 
Good Luck!
 
Thanks all :)

I've now moved both of them into a south facing window which gets a lot of light. That should help with that. In truth, the kitchen window is partially shaded so that explains that.

The new compost looks wet but in truth it's just new and loose. It's also very dark. I've weeded the pots, both on this one and the Habenero I'm also going to try and save. I'll water them sparingly, taking note of the "almost limp" leaves idea.

Thanks for all your help guys.... Now it's a waiting game to see how they respond :)
 
Its not really going to bush out without substantially more light.
Its lanky like it is (was) due to lack of light. Lack of light increases the spacing between the nodes / leaves.
if you chop the top off it, it will sprout new branches out the side of the trunk, but its only going to get stocky (with short spacing between the nodes) if it gets lots more light. 
I agree that ideally you should have left some leaves on it to help it feed / grow back
 
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