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overwintering Should I bring a reaper plant in for the winter?

DrOwl

DrOwl

I have about 5 reaper plants that are doing very well. They are all about 3 feet tall or more. I guess I'm just wondering if I bring one in if it will continue to produce. I have some t5 lights and some cfl lights as well. How long do they live for?
36562d56fab8e30953abe07a63af0f1f.jpg
bfe8739249519a40d27716043d6c9f79.jpg


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You might get it to keep producing as long as you provide it with enough light and warmth. But in my limited experience with growing indoors, it seems to take quite a bit of artificial lighting to get a full sized, mature plant to continue setting pods indoors. But If the goal is just to keep the plant alive indoors until the spring, then your light requirements will be less. So it kind of depends on how much you want to spend on lights. Either way, if you have a sunny, south facing window you can place it under, that will help too. There is a useful guide to overwintering that you might want to look at here: http://thehotpepper.com/topic/25596-the-comprehensive-guide-to-over-wintering/
 
Peppers are perennials, and can live for years. Although I have read that their productivity can start to decline a little after the first few years.
 
Edit to add: You might also get more responses to your question if you post it in the "growing hot peppers" forum rather than in the "restaurants and hot sauce shops in Minnesota" forum.  :D
 
Oh, and  :welcome: to THP!
 
DrOwl said:
I have about 5 reaper plants that are doing very well. They are all about 3 feet tall or more. I guess I'm just wondering if I bring one in if it will continue to produce. I have some t5 lights and some cfl lights as well. How long do they live for?
36562d56fab8e30953abe07a63af0f1f.jpg
bfe8739249519a40d27716043d6c9f79.jpg


Sent from my LG-H830 using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
 
 
Welcome. Plants look good. It may continue to produce if lighting is strong enough, but I would recommend cutting it back, treating it well with neem or Azamax to to get rid of inevitable critters that are living on an outside plant, and seeing what happens. Heck, cut down several of them.
 
http://www.fatalii.net/Bonsai_Chiles_Bonchi
 
I did several of these last year, and while I wasn't able to get them to produce they were fun projects. You don't have to cut them down this much, but going from strong sunlight to indoor lights usually causes the plants to drop several leaves.
 
I'd keep the plant that looks,tastes like they should.
Long tails,good taste and heat matter.
Reapers weren't stable when first released.
Your pics look like they were advertised.
 
Like Primo's. LOL
 
Boils down to did you like the pods taste,heat and maybe looks.(looks means little to me in general),
 
Boils down to DO YOU LIKE THE PODS YOUR BEST PLANT PUT OUT,is it going to be too much work to overwinter etc,
 
You will be doing the work keeping it alive.
Decide for your personal likes.
The work involved...
Not for likes about pics and posts.
 
If you like a plant,keep it alive...
 
I grew a Habanero De Arbol for years before Broad Mites attacked.
It was my largest most loved plant,close to 10 yrs. old.
 
Do what you want to do,what makes you feel good.
 
Smoke
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Great! Thank you guys for the info! I have a couple of really nice plants that I was eyeing up to bring in! Besides the reapers, I have Carolina red habeneros, and Trinidad scorpions. I started them indoors around the middle of March and now finally they are all turning red. My first time ever growing anything hotter than regular habeneros. It's been pretty fun. Just made some hot sauce the other day. It's very hot and pretty tasty. It's got a few of all 3 peppers, lots of garlic, little bit of onion, and a hint of lime. Then a little apple cider vinegar after I fermented the peppers.
I'm probably going to dry most of the remainders soon.

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smokemaster said:
I'd keep the plant that looks,tastes like they should.
Long tails,good taste and heat matter.
Reapers weren't stable when first released.
Your pics look like they were advertised.
 
Like Primo's. LOL
 
Boils down to did you like the pods taste,heat and maybe looks.(looks means little to me in general),
 
Boils down to DO YOU LIKE THE PODS YOUR BEST PLANT PUT OUT,is it going to be too much work to overwinter etc,
 
You will be doing the work keeping it alive.
Decide for your personal likes.
The work involved...
Not for likes about pics and posts.
 
If you like a plant,keep it alive...
 
I grew a Habanero De Arbol for years before Broad Mites attacked.
It was my largest most loved plant,close to 10 yrs. old.
 
Do what you want to do,what makes you feel good.
 
Smoke
 
 
 
 
 
 
Click to expand...
Thank you!!! My first time actually. I have about 6 or 7 reapers but 2 if the plants are the only ones with long tails. They're heirloom seeds from bakers creek.

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BlackFatalii said:
You might get it to keep producing as long as you provide it with enough light and warmth. But in my limited experience with growing indoors, it seems to take quite a bit of artificial lighting to get a full sized, mature plant to continue setting pods indoors. But If the goal is just to keep the plant alive indoors until the spring, then your light requirements will be less. So it kind of depends on how much you want to spend on lights. Either way, if you have a sunny, south facing window you can place it under, that will help too. There is a useful guide to overwintering that you might want to look at here: http://thehotpepper.com/topic/25596-the-comprehensive-guide-to-over-wintering/
 
Peppers are perennials, and can live for years. Although I have read that their productivity can start to decline a little after the first few years.
 
Edit to add: You might also get more responses to your question if you post it in the "growing hot peppers" forum rather than in the "restaurants and hot sauce shops in Minnesota" forum.  :D
 
Oh, and  :welcome: to THP!
Click to expand...
I didn't realize it was in a resteraunt seaction. Oops

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They are looking real good for sure. I can tell you that they will have awesome production next year if brought in over the winter I dug up a chocolate habanero plant from last season, because they were just flowering when the cold hit us. I kept the plant under a couple 6 tube t5 fixtures all winter and it put out around 300 pods through this season. There are still around 30 or so small pods ready to harvest. Sadly, I won't get to keep it this winter though.
 
Almost forgot that you will want to be prepared to take care of aphids when bringing in the plants though. I collected a few ladybugs that hung around my plant for a couple months when they first came in the house.
 
I think your best bet is to give a search to the term 'over wintering'.  Blackfatalii is dead on when he says it takes a lot of light to keep them producing good pods.  Thing is, keeping the root structure alive will give you a huge head start in the spring. 
 
If you have the room, might as well try to root some of what you trim off. Put them over a heat mat and you should have hood results.
 
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