water Too Much Water... Did I Kill Them???

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peppernube

I watered my pepper plants this past weekend.  Getting caught up in something else, I forgot to turn the water off...for 3-5 days. 
Water is from irrigation system so no extra water bill and on a drip system providing between 3-8 gallons per hour.  I estimate that the plants received between  200 and 1,000 gallons, per plant.
 
Leaves are dropping fast. Congo Blacks are almost bare, Butch-Ts and Ghosts are about 1/4 dropped, Trinidad Scorpions and 7 Pot Primos are about 1/3 dropped, white hot habanero have almost no droppage.
 
I live in SE Georgia, weather starting to drop to low 50s high 40s, but the peppers are still producing.  I was getting ready to prune down to 12-18" to overwinter outside, in the ground with double hoop system over them with a small temp regulating fan to keep them between 45-60.
 
Questions to group are...
 
Did I kill them all?
Should I wait to prune?
Will overwintering in the ground prove useful (I have about 40-50 plants, 5-6 each type)?
Should I tear them up and start from scratch next year (I really, really, really do not want to)?
 
This was my first year and I'm tyring my best....Any help will be greatly appreciated.
 
Only way to know is wait and see how they do.  Is there any way for you to help dry the soil out like digging a trench around them?   
 
Yeah, I would encourage you to dig around the soil like Mr Hill said.

You can overwinter in ground with hoop covers or whatever you can do to keep em warm. If you do it right you can keep producing.


I would dig first and add a fertilizer. I don't know about dirt plants really, but I think they need electrolytes that may have been leached away from their roots.

On the upside, if you dig a trench, you can start filling it with food scraps/compost bin stuff as time goes by it'll fertilize your plants and become soil :)
 
Well, you definitely stressed them but unlikely they are dead. If you can return them to more dry conditions (but not bone dry), they will likely pull through. 
 
You can overwinter in the ground if conditions are right, or if you make the conditions right. Peppers don't like their roots to get below 50F for a sustained period. They'll handle low 40's ok if it's just overnight, and even an occasional upper-30. You have to prevent frost from getting to them, and the row covers will likely do that for you. The question is what happens if you get a cold snap - do you have some way to keep them warm? Yes, people here have run space heaters out to their covered plants, so that's an option.
 
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