overwintering My over-wintering spot. Will it suffice? Please come in and give opinions.

Sarg3

Sarg3

Right now this bedroom is unused.  It has some stuff stored in it but I have been thinking this corner would be a good place to OW some plants.  I still need to read up on forcing dormancy though.  The wall on the right faces directly South and morning to early afternoon good sun comes in.  I just took this picture at 5:20pm and the sun is pretty much right above the house right now so it's too bright in the corner at the moment. 
 
As you can see there's a plug on the left wall I could always hook a light up at if needed and while I do have a jumpstart T5 systerm, which I will also picture below, I plan to use that in a 55 gallon aquarium along with an aquarium light to keep some seedlings going.  The aquariums are used a lot for starting my seedlings when I have the windowsill's filled up lol.  I remove the lids to help airflow but I need to purchase a clip fan to run a few times during the day to help dry the soil out in between watering.
 
On to the corner. This is about the only spot in the house that is unoccupied that lets good natural light in. 
Q32YRvc.jpg

The dresser would be moved over, the floor would be lined with white plastic sheeting and if needed, I could create two makeshift walls with totes or something to sort of box it in, which would also be lined with the white plastic.   Thoughts?  I'm really hoping to make this work without adding a light to them.  I just need them to make it through until Spring and don't need them producing over the winter.
 
The jumpstart light system is like this.  If they go back on sale again I'll grab a few more.  I actually got the one I have for under $20
jump-start-t5-grow-light-system.jpg

 
Thanks for reading
 
tylerdodd25_92 said:
I think that spot would be sufficient I virtually give my over winters no light and they are fine every year... hope all goes well
Click to expand...
I was under the impression that even if dormant, they need a small amount of light?  Interesting.  This isn't only my first year with peppers but my first time trying to keep plants alive during winter. Thanks Tyler
 
Some people have put their overwinters into a shed with little to no light and they've been fine. Once dormant, they don't need much. Just keep an eye out for the first leaves in the spring then start giving them more light/water/food.
 
Any of you care to share how to force dormancy?  If I bring a few of them in I'll definitely need to prune about half of the growth. 
 
I generally repot mine as part of the process, giving them fresh potting soil. I remove any leaves that are left and do a significant pruning - both stems and roots. I ensure all tiny stems are removed, and even some of the larger (but not big), too. Once I'm happy with the top, I then prune the roots. The general rule of thumb is to prune the roots so that the distance from the soil line to the point you pruned the stems equals the distance from the soil line to the point you trim the roots. In other words, so it's evenly distributed between the top of the plant and the bottom of the plant. After that I repot it, then give it a good watering with a combo of one cup of hydrogen peroxide to one gallon of water. Then put it in a cool room with lesser light than it was getting. That's really about it. Don't water or feed as much as during the growth cycle, but if you can, keep a fan on it at least periodically. 
 
Keep an eye on it for signs of problems. My overwinters got a nasty, nasty infestation of aphids this past spring. Not only that, but I didn't repot this time (a fractured ankle kind of interrupted things...) and a soil fungus started to kill off the tips of the branches, and even killed entirely the smaller plants. I watered with the hydrogen peroxide and water several times after that, which got rid of the fungus, but the damage was done. Still, most made it through the winter in spite of these things. This was my 3rd year overwintering, but was the first in which I had these kinds of problems.
 
My procedure is almost as posted just above...
I have succesfully overwintered many plants without artificial lighting on both south- and westfacing window sills. It is important get a sane temperature to light ratio, so from Oct-March/April I grow at 5-15 degrees celsius (41-59 F) trying to keep it around 10 C (50 F). The temperature will slow down growth to a nearly dormant state. At the same time I usually trim the plant down and repot it in a quite small pot.
 
Should work for overwintering as long as the house is kept at a comfortable temperature. The one thing I'd be worried about is that they grow inside and not go dormant, because it can be a pain getting them back out through a door.
 
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