indoor Need tips on growing a Caribbean Red Habanero INDOORS..

[redeyeguy]

This is my first year growing chiles, and I decided to bring my rather small Caribbean Red in for the winter, and to make it into a beautiful house plant (in a pot)... but I realized I'm probably gonna need a fluorescent light or something. So I have a few questions..

1. The plant is supposedly short (maxes at 3ft tall), is this true? If so, how big of a light should I use?

2. Watering an outdoor plant is easy as pie, but watering indoors means a risk of root rot. Is there anyway for me to properly mediate just how much to water the plant? I've been kinda scared about this..

3. I live in Southern Ontario, would a South-facing window be sufficient for a happy healthy plant, or is a grow-light a requirement?

4. I heard if I don't let my plant hiberate, it'd die. I don't know crap about overwintering, what am I going to do?! Do I just keep treating it the same way all year around? I want this plant to live a long time.


Thanks!

If anyone has any additional Caribbean Red specific advice, please enlighten me. I need as much help as possible to ensure this plant will outlive me by 400 years.

 

[POTAWIE]

1. They can easily get a lot bigger than 3 ft if you let them but it depends on a lot of factors. Everyone seems to have their favorite lighting
2. Use a good well drained soil and try to bottom water, but only when the plants dry out
3. They will grow with window light but may not produce much and will likely grow tall and leggy
4. I don't believe chiles really go dormant, but you can get them sort of semi-dormant or you can just keep growing them as normal with lights. Do a site search, there's lots of overwintering info

Good luck

 

[willard3]

If you want the chile to produce fruit during winter (they will) you will need 30-50 watts/square foot of artificial lighting.

 

[Omri]

I have all sorts of different red Chinense (some were labeled as Caribbean Red) and all of them are at least 1.5m/5ft. I'm guessing with the right equipment they'll get REALLY BIG. if you want it to keep its small size, just put it in a small pot and trim it once in a while. it'll fruit with enough light (listen to Willard).

 

[redeyeguy]

So, can anyone explain what "bottom watering" is? I'm gonna assume it's adding water to the dish at the bottom... I thought that was harmful to most plants? Then again, what do I know?

Thanks for the very helpful advice, guys! If anything else comes up, I'll know who to turn to.

I'm loving this place already.

 

[imaguitargod]

So, can anyone explain what "bottom watering" is? I'm gonna assume it's adding water to the dish at the bottom... I thought that was harmful to most plants? Then again, what do I know?

Thanks for the very helpful advice, guys! If anything else comes up, I'll know who to turn to.

I'm loving this place already.

I usually feed with the bottom watering but change it up every 3rd watering to top watering one time. And you got the def of bottom watering correct.

 

[Josh]

So, can anyone explain what "bottom watering" is? I'm gonna assume it's adding water to the dish at the bottom... I thought that was harmful to most plants? Then again, what do I know?

Yes it is but you only leave water in the dish for a few minutes. This allows the soil to wick the water up. After that (you can lift the pot before and after to feel the weight difference), you drain the excess water from the dish. You are right. You shouldn't leave pots sitting in water for extended periods of time. It can cause root rot.

 

[RichardK]

If it's in a pot, after a time it will get root bound and it helps to trim the roots a bit and add a little new soil to bring back some vigor.

If you want fruit indoors, you WILL need fans to aid in pollination and to blow away hot stagnant air from the lights.

You need a really bright light source, fluorescent lights are not the best option even though they may appear bright, the human eye is a terrible judge of brightness. If you do go with fluorescent lighting, you will need to keep them as close to the leaves as possible without causing the flowers to drop or abort due to the heat they give off.

If you can get a 400 Watt HPS or Metal Halide, this should be good for one or two plants (depending on their size). They are bright enough that you dont need to bring them so close that the radiant heat causes flower drop but will be bright enough for flowers to actually set fruit.

For more information on growing indoors, check here.

 

[redeyeguy]

Again, thanks for the tips! You say bottom watering should only be done for a few minutes.. how long would you recommend? I wanna be as safe yet effective as possible.

About pollination, I heard you can simply hand pollinate with a q-tip, or merely shake the plants... so I'm curious about the "you need a fan" thing.

I was reading the guide about the lighting, and it seems a lil complicated. I hope that I can find the perfect lighting, as my chile will be sharing a light source with my dad's Dwarf Lemon Tree (it's short, maxes out at like 3ft.. so both my chile and the lemon will be of same size I guess).

 

[POTAWIE]

I wouldn't be cutting the roots but instead just pot up, unless your pruning back the top as well. Top and bottom should be cut back proportionally.
Bottom watering is great until salts start to build up at which time you should top water to flush out any minerals. For bottom watering just let the plants sit until they've soaked up the water then move to a dry place
Hand pollination is not needed for chiles, but a shake, a breeze, or a fan can help although I do none of the above and never have pollination problems
Personally I just use window light or sometimes flourescent lights for the winter but I'm not looking for production during this time, I just find its more efficient to wait until spring when its warmer and more sunlight is available