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COOL NIGHTS.... GOOD OR BAD??

U)<now

U)<now

So the previous 6 weeks were all in the low to mid 90's with night time temps of 75-80F..... and now this last week has been highs of mid 70's and night time temps in the low 50's......

SO, will the low temps slow down pod ripening, or help and speed them up???

Im assuming it will slow them down.... :tear:

Thanks ahead of time for any input!
 
I'm in NE Ohio, and we're having the same weather - down to 54F tonight if the forecast is right. However, after tomorrow night, things are supposed to start warming up a bit. I've posted on this topic elsewhere, and all the responses from this general area indicate we may have growth until the first part of October, if all goes well. My plants are in pots and I've only got 3, so as soon as the forecast hits 50F for overnight, I'm bringing my pots inside, at least for overnight. Everything I've read so far indicates peppers generally do well until about 50F, so I will haul them back outside until daytime temps also dip down to the 50's.

I am fighting spider mites right now, and won't know if it will be worth trying to overwinter the plants or not until I either see signs of recovery or further decline. If your plants are in pots and you want to overwinter them, go out to the Forums level, then do a search for Fall and a search for Winter to see the threads that already exist on that topic.

G
 
Cool night are a good thing. I makes the plants think that winter is coming so they better hurry up and ripen what fruit is there. I left my plants outside last year well into freezing temps at night without any problems, fruit was even setting with those freezing nights.
 
Plants are 'coldblooded'. Their cells will be about the same temperature as the air around it. Chemical reactors are affected by temperature. This means their metabolism is much lower with the lower temperatures. Of course they can't do photosynthesis during the night, but I am sure they have other stuff to do.

I don't think it will make the plant hurry up with the seeds as as far as the plant genes 'know', there's no winter. Also, I am pretty sure the plant already grows as quickly as it can. No need to grow slow while waiting for winter to get near and then speed up.
 
millworkman said:
Cool night are a good thing. I makes the plants think that winter is coming so they better hurry up and ripen what fruit is there. I left my plants outside last year well into freezing temps at night without any problems, fruit was even setting with those freezing nights.
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We grew some sweet bells last year. When it froze here, that's what happened to the bells - they just froze. Then died. U)<now is even further north than I am, so is likely to have the same results. But you know, I've been wrong before...:whistle:
 
I had an over-abundance of jalapenos last year that I just left to their own devices. They dealt with a few freezing nights like champs and finished their final pods just fine. They were still alive til the beginning of december. They didn't handle the snow lol.
 
My peppers always seem to ripen like mad this time of year. I think it has to do with the cooler weather and/or more red light spectrum in the late summer & fall
 
Well, there you go. I live in the snow belt, and we get tons of that "lovely" lake-effect snow. We can have a foot and a half of it here, but go just 5 miles south of my house, and they just have a dusting. Pretty much only true perrenials make it through the winter here. Since you're west of CLE, you likely don't get as much as we do, either.
I've been here for 13 years now, and still haven't gotten used to it - as soon as my son finishes college, I'm outta here!
 
There actually is I believe. At least they are testing such a product. There was a thread about it here somewhere

Check out this link
http://www.cropaid.com/
 
We've had a similar problem in the south this years, but we're benefiting greatly from it. Plants shut do transpiration once you get into the high 90's and they need cooler nights to recover. We would only get into the mid 80's (at best) in the evening, so the plants never really got a chance to recover. This week we've still been in the mid 90's but it's dropping into the 70's in the evening. Plants are looking ALOT more perky and their water consumption has already been cut in half.

Like MWM (in TN) I've always had great production as fall comes around, but our fall is much milder than northern states. It's hard for me to pick all of my peppers in September and October. They seem to throw ripe pods every hour
 
I've noticed my plants go into high gear when fall/winter starts coming around. We've been hitting highs of 60 (16c) during the day and dipping down to 38 (3c) at night. The growth is nothing short of amazing. It seems like new shoots pop out over night. Not sure if some of the chinense are going to have time to ripen up or not. I've got about 40 more days before we get frost and freezing temps.
 
Thank you everyone for all the info.... Im just worried because I haven't had a real harvest yet and have lots of pods just hangin out teasing me.... I ask them to hurry up and ripen and this is the look I get back from them..... :snooty:
 
The pods that are on the plant right now will probably be fine. Mine took their own sweet time to ripen, and I still have some that are stubbornly green for now. They're also blooming again, so while I'm not concerned about the existing pods, I wonder if the ones that are budding will get anywhere. I'm going to make a point tomorrow to check out the flowers out front, and see if the bees are still hanging out - if not, when the peppers bloom I'm going to hand-pollenate.

All this, though, with the caveat that I've been fighting spider mites - I've seriously cut off all leaves that have an inkling of discoloration, chewing, or sign of weakness, so the plants are down to the bare minimum. If they don't get seriously happy in the next handful of weeks, I'm not going to bother trying to overwinter them.
 
I don't plan on overwintering any plants this year. I had way too many problems with aphids coming in off the few that I did overwinter. It's going to be all new starts for me rather than battle those PITA little bastards
 
Overwintering for me is quite easy. I leave the plant outside till after a few frosts when they seem to be almost dead. I then move them into my detached garage that gets quite cold in winter with leaves and everything intact, make sure the blinds are open so that they get a little light. Sometime around new years I cut them all back and repot into much smaller pots with new soil and put into the germ chamber with new seeds. All is good.
 
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