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overwintering Overwintering Pepper Plants

AlabamaJack

AlabamaJack

eXtreme
As most of you know, I have a lot of plants growing in 5 gallon containers...

I was thinking of how to keep a bunch of these plants over the winter but limited lighted space is a real concern.

I was thinking about rose bushes. I usually buy two or three rose bushes each year for the back porch and all of them are nothing but a root ball and some "sticks" jutting out of the top of the package...

Would treating pepper plants the same way as they do rose bushes work?

I would like to trim the top of the plant back...extreme cutback to maybe 6-8", pull up the plant (they are in containers and mostly rootbound), trim the rootball back to about 5-6" diameter by about 10-12" deep, then use burlap to wrap the root ball in...

If this method will work, I can save myself a lot of trouble for next year (2011) and transplant these "overwintered" plants to 7-10 gallon containers for their second year.

Comments and recommendations are welcome...

If anyone has any experience with overwintering plants this way...please tell me your lessons learned...

Thanks in advance...
 
Well, you're the god of chile plants :), while I'm a newb, but I've been doing a bit of reading on the subject for quite some time now, because of where I live (it's in the low 40's this morning here.) There is a guide on overwintering on TheChiliman.org website, in which he talks about severely pruning the plants back to just a few inches tall for the winter - not sure if you've read that. Since I'm in this god-forsaken cold place, in an old house with what feels like very little insulation, that's my plan of attack. Of all the things I've read, that makes the most sense, especially for my area.

The one thing additional I'm considering is the individual pods. Severely pruning them back like that will make them bushier, and hence should get more pods (because more axils.) My cayenne pods are quite long, however (8-10"), so I'm not going to chop it back quite so much - if the axils start too close to the ground, it will be problematic. There is already growth on it low, with pods hanging low, and while I was curious to see what would happen with that this year, I won't let it repeat next year. Here's a link to my thread showing what's happening - the pics of the lower section are just over half way down.

Just saw this, which you might want to check out if you haven't already: Potawie pics

Regardless of your plan of attack, I wish you well in your overwintering, my friend!

G
 
Mate I was brutal with my 2x 7 pots, 2x devils tongue and 2x bhut jolokias last season. I chopped them back like roses but left some 'twigs' about 6 inches long left off the main branch. Ripped every sign of green off the twigs, pulled them out of the pots and bashed off most of the soil. Re potted with my own mix and heaps of rooster booster and they are now bigger and better than last year. Mind you here on the gold coast it's always summer :) Go for it and see what happens.
 
hey AJ i do over wintering every year. i think the rose bushes are tougher and thicker than or pepper plants, the only thing might work for you is rpoting them in smaller containers on galon or two . the over wintering doesnot need any fertilizer, or much light all what u need it to keep them live . this year iam trying new way which i cut all the branches and most roots, then place the plant in water container. if the plant makes it through winter. its great deal. if the plant start grwoing indore you need to cut most new branches. because you need the plant to start in spring with new fresh branches that fits into the new growing environment(out door) .
so if i was you i would repot them in smaller containers. without pulling them by hands this will damage the roots use tool and cut all roots around the trunk about 5 inches and make sure not to shake the dirt off the roots mainly the base.

what could kill your plants in over wintering is water and fertilizer. dont use any fertilizer what so ever because the plant in not in growin status it is in sleeping relaxing mode which means it dont need to grow it only needs to stay alive till next growing season. even with poor lights they will survive. an other thing when you pruning and cut the branchs do that way befor you have them inside , or i should say your last frots, every year i love tons of green unrip pods because i prun the plants early. this will help alot in colsing all the wounds and promoting new lil leafs and branches to grwo, so by the time move them inside they are ready for new growing cycle instead of stressing the cuts and trying to promote new leafs. this can decide wither the plant will live or not.

i hope you good over wintering and i wish my input helped some how
 
I cut mine way back every year roots and all, but I bring them indoors for the winter and let them go semi-dormant
 
POTAWIE said:
I cut mine way back every year roots and all, but I bring them indoors for the winter and let them go semi-dormant
Click to expand...
Hey, Potawie -

The one thing I haven't found much detail on is just when to do this, and what I have found is mixed. It makes sense to me to let my pods finish ripening, then after I pull them all expose the plants to lower temps (the basement will work for this), so they start to go dormant on their own, then prune them back. Is there an argument for pruning them back without waiting to let them go dormant first - just take a "today's the day" approach? Seems to me this would just put them into shock, so is not a good idea. But some people seem to do this.
 
I cut them back when it starts to get too cold for them and when I've picked off all the pods. Chiles do not really go dormant but with cooler temps and little light they will go what I call semi-dormant. I find it neccessary to cut them way back and pot them down first so they will fit in through my front door, and then I try to get them into semi-dormancy. They are already in slow motion this time of year so it doesn't seem to take much but too much light and you'll have your hands full with unwanted early new growth and likely aphids too :(
 
The light issue is also one of the reasons I'll move them to the basement - there's little to none down there in the winter, depending upon how covered up the little windows get with snow. The area I'm in has houses stacked right next to each other, with just the driveways and a tiny strip of yard in between, so the windows usually get covered when the drives get plowed - so most of the winter.

So you're cutting before they go into semi-dormancy. +1 for the info database in my head!

I guess I'm scratching my head about the aphids note. I haven't seen any signs of them on my plants so far, so it seems they shouldn't be an issue, especially if I repot before "really" bringing them inside. ie - didn't you have to have some type of aphid problem before bringing them inside, in order to have an aphid problem afterwards? I've never seen ants in the house or basement during the winter, but know there's a first time for everything!
 
You may not have enough light in your basement for overwintering. I tried overwintering in a cool, very dark crawl-space last year and everything there died :(

The big problem with aphids is that you only need one to start an infestation, and if you have any other winter house-plants you'll want to make sure to treat them too
 
Guess I should have added that I'll be using some lighting, but the real point is that it will be under my control, when and how much. We had some orchids in a window in the kitchen one winter when the snow got pretty high. Then it got amazingly sunny, and the light reflecting off the snow ended up burning the orchids. Live and learn.

I've been here 13 years now, and still find the snow confounding. It amazes me that people live in areas where it gets up to and even over the rooftops (which doesn't usually happen here, but I've heard it does on rare occasion.) It's scary to try to back out of your driveway when you can't see down the street because of the wall of snow on both sides, and I've only had it just higher than my car.

AJ - every morning you walk outside of your house, look down at the ground, then up at heaven, and say a little thank-you prayer that you live in Tejas!

G
 
AJ,

A couple of years ago, I overwintered about 20 plants. Cut them back to nubs, stuck the pots under a grow chamber where they couldn't get any light and watered them every other week, letting them sit is a tub of water and also watering from the top. Had to deal with a few aphids but sprinkling garlic and maybe one application of Safer Soap took care of that. I trimmed little shoots off every so often but they were doing good - until I forgot to water them for a month!

Mike
 
You may have seen this link before:

http://www.fatalii.net/growing/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=95&Itemid=105

Although you might not want to cut back this drastically, it does show just how far these plants can be cut back and stored in some very small containers.

Once overwintered, the plants can then be placed in much larger containers for an early season head start.

Cheers,

Doug
dvg
 
I overwintered a couple of plants last year for the first time. I used a method I saw over on another forum in a post by John F. I cut the plant way back to about 4 inches tall and the root were the same size as the plant and put in 2 gal pots. Only 1 plant made it through the winter though. The others I trashed due to a epidemdic level of aphids. The one that made it didn't start new growth before I trashed the others and never got a lot of aphids. I just used a couple of spot lights with 100w equiv. CFL bulbs. I will be doing it again this year with more varieties putting them in 1 gal pots paying very close attention to aphids.

One thing to keep in mind is mine started to show new growth in a matter or weeks. Maybe less light will slow this down, but there wasn't light where I had them. Like Potawie said, they don't really go completely dorment, just slow down to a crawl.
 
thanks for all the replies...

I have made up my mind I am going to try and save about 200 plants for next year...nothing ventured, nothing gained...

I am going to cut back the tops...an extreme hair cut...down to nubs....same with the root ball...about 5" diameter by about 8-10 inches deep...wrap the root ball first in brown paper bag (grocery bag), then wrap in burlap and secure...then the tops will be treated with an anti drying agent...after they are "packaged, I will stack them in my storage building on visquene so water/dirt won't get all over my floor and monitor them for moisture...

If this doesn't work, I will know in time to start enough seeds for myself next year on top of what I will start for selling...

the reason I am not simply repotting the plants into smaller containers is because of the number I want to save and the space to store them...

If it works, I will be one happy man...especially knowing that second year plants produce tons more than first year plants do...

I have overwintered one plant quite successfully...it actually just grew thru winter under lighting in my grow box...
 
I will definitely share pics of how I am going to do it...and the results this coming spring...
 
moisture retention for cheap...
 
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