Low Temperatures and Varieties

AJ Drew

AJ Drew

33 degrees is predicted this Friday night / Saturday morning.  I expect some things to survive.  Last year, we had some pepper plants make it threw a light frost.  However, this year we already lost the bubblegum patch and there hasn't been a night below 36.  Makes me wonder if maybe different variety can take different cold or if maybe I just have more going on in the soil keeping one area warmer than another.  Could be something as simple as the angle to the sun, amount of sunlight.  No clue.

So what do you think?  Can some chili survive colder temperatures than others or do I have some sort of micro climate thing going on that shows itself when the difference between a living and dead plant is only a couple degrees?
 
Don't know how much help this will be, but i just picked several Bubblegums tonight and it has been getting to the low 40's at night for the last week or more here. All of my plants slowed down significantly a few weeks ago, and although some dropped a few leaves there are still pods ripening.
I intend to get the rest of the plants i will overwinter trimmed and brought inside in the morning.
 
I am told the Pubescens peppers can survive colder temperatures better than many of the others, and the few that i have are still flowering.
 
Friday night it is supposed to get down to 29 here so its over for what doesn't make the Overwinter list :mope:
 
 
 
 
:cheers:
 
G I P
 
 
34 deg here this am.  I have pulled most all the plants.  The Beni Highlands has looked very healthy and vibrant compared to the habs, bonnets and others this past week.  I am leaving it in just to see how much it can take. 
 
I have a bunch of pubescens that are still flowering and setting pods, we've had at least a dozen nights into the low 30's. As I type the temp says 34°F, I only have one chinense plant(CGN21566) that hasn't hit the compost pile yet and it looks amazing and is still setting pods.  All of the plants I still have are in containers sitting on the hot top, gets the root zone warmer during the day and the hot top holds some heat a little while after sun down if the sun is out. 
 
We are hitting low 40s overnight now and everything is wilting.  My reapers and morugas are still looking okay but the ripening has certainly slowed.  I have a few datil plants still out there but they have stalled from what I see.  The chiltepins still look healthy but they were so far behind this year I only saw one pod.
 
Yup they vary, as I read I realized I forgot to bring in one so when I looked outside the plants leaves are still good and not drooping etc, temp is 0c currently. This plant is the Tinker Bell, not hot but it works well in cold temps apparently, it has survived -2c already.
 
DMF said:
Predicted today: 95o high, upper 60's low. 
 
And I really need the extra growing season...
Click to expand...
hopefully the cooler air coming in tomorrow will help to set my pods. i have 6 Caribbean reds growing and only 1 plant has pods, the rest are just flowers :confused:
 
DMF said:
Predicted today: 95o high, upper 60's low. 
 
And I really need the extra growing season...
Click to expand...
th.jpeg
  !  why you gotta rub it in ! lol
 
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rickster said:
hopefully the cooler air coming in tomorrow will help to set my pods. i have 6 Caribbean reds growing and only 1 plant has pods, the rest are just flowers :confused:
Click to expand...
 
I'm in much the same boat.  I know what's going on with me, though.  I didn't have sunlight for nearly two months.  Aren't your plants getting enough light? 
 
We're too smug.  I have this sneaking feeling that we're gonna get clobbered by an early cold wave. 
 
 
 
Such is hubris.
 
Forecast changed.  Now they are saying 32 Saturday night.  Have seen some plants survive even a light frost.  Reapers and moruga managed it last year, but the frost was only on the grass, not on the plants and they were mulched big time.  Thing is, this cold is going to be three nights in a row, then it warms up again for another week.  If we squeak bye, it will be by a very small margin.  Still, the plastic is going up and the fingers are getting crossed.

BTW: New family tradition, when it finally comes we are going to have a wake for our gardens, going to each garden and thanking it.  Well, each garden but the lufa which didn't give us a damn thing this year.  I was really looking forward to using one for the first time.
 
It's supposed to freeze on Sunday and Monday morning here. I spent most of the day today cutting down all my pepper plants, and prepping the keepers for OW. I cut back some branches on my rocoto plants, but I'm going to leave them outside for this weather. There are a lot of pods growing on them, and it is only supposed to be 32 or below for a couple of hours each day, so the rocoto should be fine. It's supposed to pick back up to the 60's daytime temps, 40's night time temps for a week at least after the freeze. That should give more of the half way ripened ones to fully ripen.

The cool weather didn't really faze any of my non pubescens plants too much. It's been in the 40s and 50s at night pretty consistently. I did have one potted lemon drop plant that started dropping leaves, and had sagging branches a couple of weeks ago. That might have been caused by the weather, or it was just exhausted from pumping out pods all summer.

I like your idea of a wake. Maybe I'll do a cremation of the big branches in my smoker, and drink to the bounty they provided this year. Anyone ever smoked peppers with pepper branches and wood chips combined?
 
ajdrew, I think the biggest local variant is the lay of the land.
It can be 4-5 degrees colder lower down in a valley just 500 yards away.
Where I stay 30-32 degrees F is our winter minimum , so it is always tricky to know what will survive.
 
ajdrew, mulch won't help against frost.  Frost kills the leaves; the ground is still warm so the roots will be fine until a long cold stretch freezes the ground or main stem.  (Same does not apply to container - roots freeze much more quickly in containers.)
 
I've actually had pretty good luck with plants surviving the nominal "32o low" or early "freeze warning".  In most cases it never even got that cold - more like 34.
 
 
But then, I was on a hill.
 
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