• If you need help identifying a pepper, disease, or plant issue, please post in Identification.

tutorial The Comprehensive Guide to Over-Wintering

Sounds like one of mine. Once I put more light on it (longer duration) it started shooting again.
Just be careful not to overwater when its in that "almost no growth" stage.
 
Overwintered plants will begin flowering and loading up almost instantaneously due to the major/crucial plant structure already existing. No lag time like when they have to "become" a plant from seed. :)

I am seeing that firsthand. My plants are in a room with one south facing window,and they are not getting any artificial lighting. 18 open flowers and who knows how many more. I expect they will all drop but with low light and no food I am surprised.

122612160519.jpg

122612160558.jpg

122612160650.jpg
 
The new growth was looking very leggy, so I trimmed it back. A week later, I have no leaves and the green woody stems are now brown. Did I kill my plant or just knock it into full dormancy?

Thanks for any help.

-Gerry
Sounds like a combo of cutting back a bit much and not enough light. What are your temps?
 
With no ladybugs, parasitic wasps or praying manti to take care of my aphids, I gave up today and put the neem oil to my overwintering plants. Actually, the biggest problem was on small cuttings I have rooted from some of my favorite plants this past summer.

This is the first time I've used neem oil. I mixed the 70% neem oil at 4 tablespoons per gallon of water and sprayed thoroughly. I also think some fungus flies are in those cups so I hope the neem oil will help with them as well.

Oh well, neem oil is an organic product so I guess there is no reason to bemoan the use of it. Wish me luck. Any information from your use of neem oil will be appreciated.

Big Mike
Visit us Online: www.knot2worry.us
 
[sharedmedia=gallery:images:1005]
[sharedmedia=gallery:images:1004]
[sharedmedia=gallery:images:1001]

The first one is the one I'm worried about. Habs are a dime a dozen, but the Nhu's Pepper is a rare treat that didn't have the chance to show off properly last year. I didn't get the seeds started until late april. I'm really hoping I can get it to pull through. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
 
Yikes. Sorry man. That one doesnt look good. All I can say is to stop watering it that often and make sure it gets some diffuse sunlight. Odds dont look great for that one. Thats what they end up looking like if left out for the winter cold. Funny, Ive cut back much more than that before.
 
Heres a couple shots of my overwintered Ghost Hab's. After joining this site last summer, I decided to dig up a couple of my plants and try my best to make them survive the winter. After a few aphid problems, I got Azamax and got rid of them (I hope). Since I didn't have alot of room I put them in hanging baskets and placed them in my dining room in front of a big south-facing window. One of them has bloomed once or twice, but didnt produce anything.
DSCI0029_zpsf37421e7.jpg
DSCI0028_zps8223f0fb.jpg


I think at the end of this summer, I'll take clones and only overwinter a few plants again. Maybe these two Ghost's will be dug up again, or maybe some of my Trinidad Scorpions, who knows.
 
Cool...Got your peppers hanging around for the winter...

The 2nd photo reminded of a Jade plant when I first looked at it.

Pick off any damaged leaves. That will encourage the plant to keep producing new growth so theres no slow down, especially if the southern exposure is the only source of light.

Clones are a great idea for a new healthy start. I have a few growing now and as small as they are they're getting pretty dense.

Good luck with your superhot OW's. They should be some heavy producers come summer.

Greg
 
Hi new to the forum and very impressed with this thread!
I'm trying to overwinter 6 pepper plants (2 cayenne and 4 sweet bell) and am a little unsure as to what is 'normal' and whether they'll make it to spring.
After a dreadful summer here in the UK (wet, dull & cool throughout) I got very few sweet peppers (most of which took until October/November to ripen indoors) although plenty of medium heat chillies (lack of sun meant lack of heat!).

At the end of the season I simply brought the plants inside (no pruning) and have kept them moist but not wet at my living room temperature of 14c-21c (57-70f) being generally at the upper end of that range.
They looked fine for a while but progressively the leaves have dried up and become crispy or fallen off completely. One cayenne plant lost all its leaves and the stem has gone brown - its dead I think. The other cayenne looks very sad but holds onto a few leaves. The sweet peppers are doing better but do look pretty 'unwell' - one has lost all leaves but the stem is green still.

After loosing that plant I've placed them all under a 250w grow lamp to try to give them a bit of a boost. I get very little sunlight at this time of year (40 mins tops assuming its sunny at the exact right time) and the days have only just got longer than 8 hours in length so thought this might help.

So questions -
- Is the grow lamp worth it? I only run it whilst we are in so say 6 hours a day. If they'll cope without then I'd rather save the power.
- Does this sound normal and if so will they make it?
- Is it worth removing remaining leaves/pruning or should I leave them to it?

Thanks for any help you can give...
 
Welcome...............I would prune back above the last nodes that are still green. The plants are perennials and long as theres a healthy root section and enough vegetative tissue above soil level the plants should bounce back. That is providing theres adequate lighting and sufficent moisture. A few hours of a grw light would help, be careful not to keep it too close when the new grwth appears or you'll be drying up those upper leaves.

Honestly...the plants that you are trying to OW sre annuums and grow quick quickly from seed. Unless these plants are special to you I'd recommend starting new seeds since you have a grow light and window exposure.

Or do both, its certanly not too early to start seeds...

Good luck with either, check back to page one of this thread...the Pepper-Guru has some great step by step OW info...

Greg
 
Thanks for the tips... I guess what prompted me to OW was how very late in the season they began setting fruit. Our 'spring' & 'summer' consisted of low temperatures, endless rain and very little sunlight bar 1 week in March and 1.5 weeks in late May. Only in August did we see it improve a little (and I mean a little!). Even made it to 80f... once! Appalling year.

So during June & July most of the flowers dropped off and only when we finally got some half decent weather in August did they begin setting fruit. By September the fruit was growing but it was October before they got to any decent size by which time the days are quite short and I get next to no sunlight fall on my greenhouse. I then slowly (and I mean slowly) ripened off a few peppers indoors during November.
The plants themselves were quite large and I read you could keep them going over winter and get a head start next season thus perhaps fruiting in summer this time! So that was the logic..

Think I'll nurse these ones through now but will def start some new ones soon too. Good to know they'll not expire just yet though!
 
My first over wintered plant (red savina) seems to be healthy and doing well on its spot by a South facing window!
I prepped it about a month and a half ago.

eW5NZXV.jpg
 
I looked-up the "geo-textile" y'all were talking about making root-pruning pots out of back on page 7. This is very similar to the stuff they are putting down under our street repairs. Could this be what you guys are using? I can gets lots of it for free!

What do you sew it with?

We rarely ever get a freeze here. Maybe 5-6 frosts a year. If I were to try and over-winter some of my plants in-ground, what should I do to prepare them for winter? Cut the plants back sorta like y'all are doing when you bring them indoors? Anything else?

I have rooted cuttings of many plants over the years. It never occurred to me, nor did I ever hear that peppers were easy to root this way. This alone, in addition to all of the great info here, has made this thread a great find!!
 
IF you're good with a machine, just use a good needle and durable thread, go crazy. If you're like me sometimes hand sewing is an easier option. If you get the stuff for free kudos to you! One less cost for the season :)
 
Back
Top