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overwintering Overwintering, doing it wrong...

B

Beans

I took my carolina reapers and ghost peppers indoors for the winter, pruned the roots and removed the leaves.

They just re grew the leaves and kept going.

Im sure the temperature is too high.

The room is 70-75 degrees F 95% humidity during the day.
Outside temp is 70-75 degrees as well.

Will it harm them to just keep them growing throuh the winter indoors?

My other option is to move them to the basement and strip the leaves again but im not sure how well that will work.

Also, shouls I feed them now?

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Ive overwintered them, didnt strip leaves, just kept them under a grow light and they worked well, another year they all died from Aphids, so depends how healthy the area is.
 
Don't strip them again - the first prune looked pretty good.  The plants will not go dormant over the winter.  They will keep growing, though they don't usually flower or fruit (at least for me).  Watch them for signs of aphids - that's an issue for me in the winter months.  Then wait to plant them out until the days are getting long and the soil is warming up.  That's usually mid to end of May for me here in zone 5a.
 
Ok no more leaf stripping.
Do they dont have to go into a cool room, the 70-75F room theyre in is fine?

Thanks!
 
The plant can keep growing and it's still considered an overwinter - in order to go dormant the temperatures and light need to be reduced.
 
So your plant may continue to grow (though more slowly) inside in a window sill. Next spring plant it up into a bigger pot and it should take off.
 
Make sure that you harden it off too. It can get sunburned and die from going straight out into a long day in direct sunshine (I overwintered several plants a few years ago, kept them alive all winter, and they promptly got fried in the sun and died when I tried to move them back outside).
 
I think the key is choosing whether you want them to grow over winter or go dormant.  Heat is the starting point.  At room temp, you'll need to grow them and they'll need adequate light to grow.  If your basement is under roughly 55, you have the option of keeping them there with limited light and letting them go dormant to revive prior to the following season.  Some things to consider:
 
I've never stripped leaves, I cut the actual branches back.  But be careful, if you repetitively defoliate over a limited amount of time the plant will suffer because it will run out of stored energy, making it susceptible to disease or death.
 
If you're growing, the light through the window will become less as winter progresses and the plants will benefit greatly from supplementation. The main reason I cut back branches and root prune prior to growing a plant over winter is to make the plant smaller which better facilitates growing under artificial light - effective strength light reaches through the entire plant. They will also need food, but I would keep it modest with a balanced fertilizer, avoiding high nitrogen. I'm assuming your goal is simply for the plant to survive, not to grow a bigger plant with a more sophisticated grow setup.
 
Aphids.  If you bring the plants inside and grow in warm conditions aphids are a significant risk. Defoliating reduces this risk as does spraying off and treating the plants when bringing them inside.  I've never had an issue with aphids with dormant plants at cooler temperature, but at room temp I'd keep a close eye out for them. Plants the size of yours can be sprayed off in the shower or dipped upside-down in water and lightly shaken and such (if your soil will cooperate), which makes aphid control a lot easier than on larger bushy plants.  If you have an outbreak, you can start with a couple rinse-offs a week or so apart to reduce the initial population and subsequent egg-generation and then finish if needed with a treatment of soap solution or Neem.
 
Water.  If you choose to take them into dormancy, not over or under watering can be challenging because you can't "read" the plant easily like with a growing plant, meaning you are stuck focusing more on just the soil.
 
Good luck!  I usually both grow and bring dormant plants through the winter and really like having the peppers year-round.
 
How and why do have 95% humidity in your house? Don't you have fungus growing on the walls?
 
Keep the plants above 40° F and they'll be fine. They'll need some light. Keep them above 50 and they'll grow with more light. 70-75 is not too hot.
 
CaneDog said:
I think the key is choosing whether you want them to grow over winter or go dormant.  Heat is the starting point.  At room temp, you'll need to grow them and they'll need adequate light to grow.  If your basement is under roughly 55, you have the option of keeping them there with limited light and letting them go dormant to revive prior to the following season.  Some things to consider:
 
I've never stripped leaves, I cut the actual branches back.  But be careful, if you repetitively defoliate over a limited amount of time the plant will suffer because it will run out of stored energy, making it susceptible to disease or death.
 
If you're growing, the light through the window will become less as winter progresses and the plants will benefit greatly from supplementation. The main reason I cut back branches and root prune prior to growing a plant over winter is to make the plant smaller which better facilitates growing under artificial light - effective strength light reaches through the entire plant. They will also need food, but I would keep it modest with a balanced fertilizer, avoiding high nitrogen. I'm assuming your goal is simply for the plant to survive, not to grow a bigger plant with a more sophisticated grow setup.
 
Aphids.  If you bring the plants inside and grow in warm conditions aphids are a significant risk. Defoliating reduces this risk as does spraying off and treating the plants when bringing them inside.  I've never had an issue with aphids with dormant plants at cooler temperature, but at room temp I'd keep a close eye out for them. Plants the size of yours can be sprayed off in the shower or dipped upside-down in water and lightly shaken and such (if your soil will cooperate), which makes aphid control a lot easier than on larger bushy plants.  If you have an outbreak, you can start with a couple rinse-offs a week or so apart to reduce the initial population and subsequent egg-generation and then finish if needed with a treatment of soap solution or Neem.
 
Water.  If you choose to take them into dormancy, not over or under watering can be challenging because you can't "read" the plant easily like with a growing plant, meaning you are stuck focusing more on just the soil.
 
Good luck!  I usually both grow and bring dormant plants through the winter and really like having the peppers year-round.
Click to expand...
 
I live in Tacoma and just searched this forum prior to heading out for smaller pots and soil.  Year before last I kept a habanero barely alive in my basement.  Now he's in his third year and doing fantastic - I kept him in my south-facing window last winter, along with another habanero, a serrano and a ghost, and had enough peppers to keep my eggs hot until Summer.  This year I have about ten plants I want to 'save' - my ten Scotch Bonnets did not produce much fruit, but are healthy and I'd like to keep them going, as they were not easy to find. 
 
Given that you and I are both experiencing the same less-than-optimal outdoor pepper weather, I'm curious what your plans are and how you go about it.  I'll keep four plants growing in my window, but another ten need to be cut back and truly over-wintered.  Thanks!
 
This is an educated guess, but I'll risk it :) - I overwintered a single habanero plant year before last.  It nearly died due to neglect, and at one point I thought it was actually dead.  But it survived and I put it in a pot last summer and got pretty good production out of it.  Last winter I kept it indoors as a houseplant and it produced a small amount of fruit.  I put it back outside this summer and it lost all of its leaves, then came back strong and beautiful, and was my best producing plant.  This is significant because we did not get hot enough weather this summer, and my starters did not produce as much as similar plants last year.
 
My guess is that the third-year habanero did so well (and a second-year ghost also did great) because it had been in a low-heat environment (south-facing winter sun) for so long and learned to produce fruit in a low heat environment.  By contrast, my ten Scotch Bonnets were terrible producers.  I'm hoping that bringing them inside for the winter, then putting them back outside next summer will produce similar results.  Scotch Bonnets require a LOT of heat.  I guess if next summer is equally heat-poor and my Scotch Bonnets do well, my guess is probably correct.
 
In summary, I think over-wintered peppers and those kept inside as houseplants, become stronger, better fruit producers.
 
I would love to hear what the experts think about this.
 
Ruid said:
What is the benefit to overwintering instead of just saving seeds and starting fresh each year?
Click to expand...
 
It gives you a head start. Come spring, the overwinters are mature plants already, while the new starts are still seedlings. Also if you have a particularly good plant, maybe you want to keep that plant going.
 
ScottsBonnet said:
 
Given that you and I are both experiencing the same less-than-optimal outdoor pepper weather, I'm curious what your plans are and how you go about it.  I'll keep four plants growing in my window, but another ten need to be cut back and truly over-wintered.  Thanks!
Click to expand...
 
This year, for hot weather peppers I plan to over-winter two red bhuts and possibly a yellow bhut and red tobago scotch bonnet. I'll also overwinter a bunch of rocotos. All will get cut back, cleaned up, and root trims about equal to the amount of foliage cut back. Most will be put into smaller containers, but with at least some good new soil mix around them.
 
The rocotos will spend a lot of time outdoors on the south deck (under cover up against the house and out of the rain) and will go into the garage when it's going to get 35 or below. They can go without light for a couple/few days in the garage, but any longer and they'll want a boost.  Eventually the weather will come around for them and I'll re-pot them into bigger containers and give them a nute-boost them for the season.  Probably 15g fabric containers next year.
 
The Chinense I'll let go dormant in the garage with a small amount of supplemental florescent light, maybe 5 or 6 hours/ day.  My garage will be cold enough soon that I don't have to worry about them trying to grow.  Around the beginning of March +/-, I'll bring them inside where it's warmer by a south window and increase their day length with supplemental light. I'll target hardening off starting around mid May and the plants being 100% outside around the end of the month, weather depending.  I use a couple small tunnels now to get the plants out sooner, but when I didn't that was my target "plants-out" time.
 
I'm still learning every season and get ideas from what others do, but that's pretty much how I do it now.
 
I don't understand why everyone always wants to rip the leaves off their plants.   :rolleyes:
 
Leave the poor things alone!  If they are getting enough heat and light to make leaves worthwhile, they will retain them.  If it's too cold or dark, the plant will re-absorb some of the leaves' minerals, etc., then shed them.  
 
CaneDog said:
 
This year, for hot weather peppers I plan to over-winter two red bhuts and possibly a yellow bhut and red tobago scotch bonnet. I'll also overwinter a bunch of rocotos. All will get cut back, cleaned up, and root trims about equal to the amount of foliage cut back. Most will be put into smaller containers, but with at least some good new soil mix around them.
 
The rocotos will spend a lot of time outdoors on the south deck (under cover up against the house and out of the rain) and will go into the garage when it's going to get 35 or below. They can go without light for a couple/few days in the garage, but any longer and they'll want a boost.  Eventually the weather will come around for them and I'll re-pot them into bigger containers and give them a nute-boost them for the season.  Probably 15g fabric containers next year.
 
The Chinense I'll let go dormant in the garage with a small amount of supplemental florescent light, maybe 5 or 6 hours/ day.  My garage will be cold enough soon that I don't have to worry about them trying to grow.  Around the beginning of March +/-, I'll bring them inside where it's warmer by a south window and increase their day length with supplemental light. I'll target hardening off starting around mid May and the plants being 100% outside around the end of the month, weather depending.  I use a couple small tunnels now to get the plants out sooner, but when I didn't that was my target "plants-out" time.
 
I'm still learning every season and get ideas from what others do, but that's pretty much how I do it now.
Click to expand...
 

Thank you!  That helps.  Yesterday I cut back and re-potted (into 2 and 1 gallon) all but my Scotch bonnets and Habaneros, which will go into 2-gallons - they all have quite a few pods that are almost ready, so I'll leave them outside as long as possible.  I have a nice south-facing large window with a stand that goes right up to the bottom of it, so I'll cut back the remaining plants and put them on the stand, hoping to get peppers throughout the winter, like last year.
 
I like the idea of introducing them back into the house by putting them on the south-facing deck (I have a nice, large deck as well) and bringing them in for cold nights.  My main goal is to keep the Scotch bonnets happy until next May, at which point I might have a greenhouse ready for them - it just wasn't hot enough this year to get the production I'm used to, and I want to be ready if we get a similar summer in '19.
 
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