overwintering Is overwintering worth it?

[Mallory]

Rich is in Atlanta and has a true winter kill so he cuts way back and over winters chosen plants. His grow logs are truly inspirational if you aspire to grow organically.

I overwinter and have bigger more productive plants from it. The key is to give them the root space they need. A second year plant will not be happy in 5 gallons. It will lag behind new starts in no time. Put it in the ground and feed it properly and you will have a beast that will out perform most new starts.

 
Could you link to his grow log? I would be interested to see what goes into his soil. The largest plants I have were started from seed this past Feb and 30 of them are now at 5ft and still growing, The other 50 plants are more like 3ft but they don't get as much sun. Lots of pods ripening this week! I have had a compost pile for a few years now. I mix that in with the native soil (I grow in the ground) and I also have chickens which provide a high-calcium manure. I'm a big fan of the bone meal fox farm makes because it is more like a powder compared with espoma. I'm lucky that my native soil is already in great condition, not the clay soil that many people have to deal with. 

 

[Dave2000]

One thing I've found to help OW plants a lot is to give them a very generous dose of 10-10-10 fertilizer starting a week after the leaves start popping out, but a little at a time with each watering rather than a lot at once.  This helped even with plants repotted but by repotted I mean I kept the original soil and added some.

 

[millworkman]

 
Could you link to his grow log? I would be interested to see what goes into his soil. The largest plants I have were started from seed this past Feb and 30 of them are now at 5ft and still growing, The other 50 plants are more like 3ft but they don't get as much sun. Lots of pods ripening this week! I have had a compost pile for a few years now. I mix that in with the native soil (I grow in the ground) and I also have chickens which provide a high-calcium manure. I'm a big fan of the bone meal fox farm makes because it is more like a powder compared with espoma. I'm lucky that my native soil is already in great condition, not the clay soil that many people have to deal with. 

 
Here is one, not a grow log but you can check out some of what he does.
 
http://thehotpepper.com/topic/44911-gurus-greenhouse-a-motherplant-how-to/

 

[Pr0digal_son]

Unless you want plants like this  

That is a first year plant.

If you have overwintered plants, I would like to hear from you because I have not been impressed with my OW plants and was wondering if I am the only one.
 
The plants I overwinter never seem to produce as much in their 2nd or 3rd year as they did in their 1st season, and they don't appear to get any bigger than they were in their first season either, even though they have a big head-start on new seedlings. Sometimes the OW plants barely produce at all and just sit there looking otherwise healthy but no pods all season (or undersized ones too early in the season) If they aren't going to produce better than the new seedlings I started for the year, then I am starting to wonder if there is any value in it other than not having to buy as many new seeds each year.

Seems like you are growing in the ground? If you are ripping plants out and cutting back,you need to get a healthy root system over the winter or they will not be any further ahead of your new starts.

If you like a plant or it didn't produce,I say go for it. I've never had any issue with peppers not producing though,usually they produce more than I can ever use and a lot get wasted.

I do still overwinter select wild species but chinense,annuum,etc are a waste of space for me. I also am picky about introducing pests to my grow area indoors so I do a full plant pruning including root zone,then clean them and repot into new soiless mix.

 

[AlabamaJack]

the main advantage of overwintering IMO is keeping your preferred seedstock strain alive...once you find a plant with the right pod shape, taste, production, and color, it's hard to let it die...
 
I do things different than some folks...I perform an extreme cutback...and I mean extreme
 
this is an orange hab I overwintered between 07 and 08...(funny I found this picture on photobucket from that long ago...)
 

 
and this was what it looked like in Sept 08
 

 
and 2 December 08 (pitiful plant)
 

 
I got over 2500 pods off of this single plant...
 
the reason I cut mine back before overwintering is a reduction in pest brought inside, and less care for the first month or so when they are inside...
 
I think overwintering is a good practice and can be very "fruitful" (pun intended)...
 
this plant was just cut back to the extrmeme and not repotted until plantout when it went into a 7 or 10 gallon container...

 

[Valleyman]

Zone 6 over wintered Reapers peaking in August