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Low Temp Nights...Butch T

This was my first attempt at germinating pepper seeds this year, and I planted my Butch T seeds too late. The plant is now only about 20" tall, and very bushy. It is also flowering. The upcoming weather forecast for the week here in southern Oregon has daily highs from 76F to 90F. Some nights will drop into the low 40s. I'm not counting on this plant producing peppers since the weather seems to be changing quickly, but I want to over-winter it.

How low can the nights get before I should bring the Butch T inside?
 
In the 50s?? Can't be, can it? I got an email from pepperlover.com telling me that as long as there is no frost/freeze, above~32F, leave it out. I'd like to hear from a few more folks here on this.
 
The plant will survive anything above freezing though if it frosts that may cause leaf loss and pod damage (they can be picked and used the next day but will rot if left on the plant much longer)., and if it stays in the roughly sub-60F range for most of the daytime several days in a row then it may drop leaves.

When it gets below 50F at night it will stunt the plant, new peppers will grow slow and little if any increase in plant size, though so long as it gets up above roughly 70F in the daytime the plant will recover some, only to be stunted again the next time temps drop below 50F.

I leave my plants out for about 4 frosts, at least the ones I have enough bedsheets to cover overnight for protection, and bring them all in once it gets below freezing. This seems to work fine for me though a primary reason is I have nowhere near enough grow lights or space to do much for a bunch of plants with a full season of growth, for me they get more benefit staying outside to get more light, more than they suffer from cold above-freezing nights, and I don't want to bother with/deal with bugs inside the house.

At this point if I were you, I would pick off most of the blooms with the hope that fewer peppers growing means the plant's energy can be put into growing them faster. If you get full sized pods before they are brought inside you have a much better chance of them maturing to a ripe state, unless as mentioned above you have nice big grow light setup inside... but I am thinking in terms of several plants, for only one plant a few dozen watts worth of fluorescent bulbs should suffice.
 
The plant will survive anything above freezing though if it frosts that may cause leaf loss and pod damage (they can be picked and used the next day but will rot if left on the plant much longer)., and if it stays in the roughly sub-60F range for most of the daytime several days in a row then it may drop leaves.

When it gets below 50F at night it will stunt the plant, new peppers will grow slow and little if any increase in plant size, though so long as it gets up above roughly 70F in the daytime the plant will recover some, only to be stunted again the next time temps drop below 50F.

I leave my plants out for about 4 frosts, at least the ones I have enough bedsheets to cover overnight for protection, and bring them all in once it gets below freezing. This seems to work fine for me though a primary reason is I have nowhere near enough grow lights or space to do much for a bunch of plants with a full season of growth, for me they get more benefit staying outside to get more light, more than they suffer from cold above-freezing nights, and I don't want to bother with/deal with bugs inside the house.

At this point if I were you, I would pick off most of the blooms with the hope that fewer peppers growing means the plant's energy can be put into growing them faster. If you get full sized pods before they are brought inside you have a much better chance of them maturing to a ripe state, unless as mentioned above you have nice big grow light setup inside... but I am thinking in terms of several plants, for only one plant a few dozen watts worth of fluorescent bulbs should suffice.

Are you saying that if I put the plant under 2-48" T8s, it will continue to grow, and produce pods?
 
It will slow down, that's less light than sunlight and it depends on temps too, but yes if you give it enough light and a fair temp it will at the very least continue to grow the existing pods, but growth at this point is more about maintaining leaves energy was spend on growing and new blooms are hit or miss... not that you necessarily want any if it is on a low light diet, ideally keeping the leaves gives it a better head start and higher total yield over time by not having to regrow leaves from nothing when warmer spring days come.

The simper version is the more you reproduce the ideal growing environment the better they will do.
 
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