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Will not ripen

cheezydemon

cheezydemon

Seems that as it is getting colder and the sun is out less, the hundreds of green pods I have aren't ripening.
From what I can understand, I need to take the plants in question inside and either keep them alive or cut and hang them.
Some of them I intend to overwinter, so obviously I will be cutting them back.

I suppose I will let the pods ripen inside under lights before cutting back and overwintering, and hang the others. Sound right?

(P.S. the "habanero ale" I am brewing smells incredible!!)
 
That's the dilemma I'm facing. I have three habs with bunches of fruits that were blooms just 10 days ago. If this was the middle of summer, I would think that in 10 days, I would have 100-150 peppers to pick. But with the sun not rising until after 7:30 and staying up only for 12 hours at most, they are probably going to take 15-20 days to ripen. I'm watching the weather and the coolest it is supposed to get in the next five days is 42, but we are at the end of October. I'm looking to see what kind of responses you get. :lol:
 
They revised the forecast - downward. 38 degrees. My game plan - I called the local grocery store and asked them to save me some large boxes - ones I can put over the plants. I'll stick a 60 watt or 100 watt light bulb inside it. That should protect me overnight but it won't do anything to speed the ripening process. And I don't see many days with temps in the mid-70s coming - we have gone three months with almost every day far above the average temp - that is not going to continue.

A follow-up question - if I dig the plants up, five inches from the plant and about eight inches deep, is that likely going to preserve the root system?

I had a Jolokia plant that a cat managed to pull up. It had next to no root system (it was only about 1-3/4" tall) and stuck it in potting soil, watered it until it was soaked and crossed my fingers. That was a week ago and now it is three inches tall and looking fine.
 
wordwiz said:
A follow-up question - if I dig the plants up, five inches from the plant and about eight inches deep, is that likely going to preserve the root system?
Click to expand...

Yes. I dug up 2 hab plants last fall and overwintered them in pots. They are both still alive. I re-planted one of them in my wife's herb bed and it's been doing great.

I wouldn't worry too much about 38Ëš. It's freezing that will kill them.
 
Yeah... I'm not too worried, yet. It's mid 70's here during the day and mid 30's at night. The only two plants that are ripening peppers are my serrano and my tabasco because they get about 4 hours of direct sun. The rest are in the shade most of the day because my house blocks the sun.

The plants never looked healthier though. My habs have to be 24" across!
 
In my experience, it's a cold wind that does the most damage if the temps are above freezing.

Geeez, it's almost November, isn't it? I guess I better break out the old sheets and blankets and stand ready to fight off those first few frosts.
 
I went ahead and chopped the hangers and potted up the keepers. I found that I had to go ahead and cut back the keepers because they took up so much room. Either that or sacrifice keeping a few. So the garage probably looks like a pot factory from the road, hanging plants everywhere. The keepers are looking kind of small and pitiful under the lights in the basement, having recently had the mother of all haircuts.
They are in the company of my habanero ale which is almost ready to bottle, hopefully they will impart some good vibes to each other.
Adios Garden! See you in the spring.
 
DevilDuck said:
Yeah... I'm not too worried, yet. It's mid 70's here during the day and mid 30's at night. The only two plants that are ripening peppers are my serrano and my tabasco because they get about 4 hours of direct sun. The rest are in the shade most of the day because my house blocks the sun.

The plants never looked healthier though. My habs have to be 24" across!
Click to expand...

HA HA!!! Mod that you are, I must still gloat when I can!!

My hab (god rest her soul) was Damn near 37 inches across and more blest with peppers than any plant I hav ever seen, yea though I am regionally challenged( as far as zone) MY HAB COULD BEAT UP YOUR HAB!! Lol

It wasn't more than 3 ft tall, I'll not mis-represent, but she was a beauty.

Kentucky is known for growing unbeatable horses, world class pot, and now.....could it be?.... are these caribbean beauties better suited to these climes? Probably not, but I sure lucked into one genetically unbelieveable specimen.........and Yes......
I am overwintering her, though now she is a mere 10 inches across. But imagine her next year.....and tremble.
 
cheezy,

What part of the Bluegrass State do you live in. I went to school in Morehead, lived in Lexington, Louisville and Morehead, spent several nights in Franfort (got caught there one time in a blizzard), worked in Murray for a couple of weeks, had a brother who lived in Richmond. Nice state, but I'm one north of you now.
 
cheezydemon said:
Seems that as it is getting colder and the sun is out less, the hundreds of green pods I have aren't ripening.
From what I can understand, I need to take the plants in question inside and either keep them alive or cut and hang them.
Some of them I intend to overwinter, so obviously I will be cutting them back.

I suppose I will let the pods ripen inside under lights before cutting back and overwintering, and hang the others. Sound right?

(P.S. the "habanero ale" I am brewing smells incredible!!)
Click to expand...

nip off any buds or flowers or non-mature sized fruit you may have, don't trim any leaves - this will help the plant focus only on the big pods. also cut back on watering which may stress the plant somewhat, again forcing the plant to concentrate on the pods.
 
Yeah, I love it too. I'm running out of growing season but I shouldn't complain. It's nearly Halloween and the trees haven't changed color yet! Freakish in a good way I guess.

Well I 'm gonna go sip a margarita by the pool......yeah right. It's not that warm lol.

Where are you now Wiz?
 
Cheesy,

About 100 miles up I-71 from you - in the Queen City. So yeah, it looks like we may a little bet or two come basketball season!

We had a light freeze last night, though I think it sayed above 32 here in the Valley area (the very middle of Hamilton County). A store was suppose to save some large boxes for me but somehow the word never got around. I drove over there at 9pm to pick them up. By then, it was too late to do much else except hope.

Looks like I bought another week for the habs, jalas and Hungarians to ripen, as well as a few eggplants. I did try to pull off any flowers I saw on the jalas, just to speed up the process.
 
Muahahahahhaha -- You know it!!

Horrible sping this year really messed up the growing season very cold and rainy until mid July I started early just didnt hit 2nd and 3rd gear till late
 
We are expecting the warmest winter on record here, I wonder if we couldn't plant earlier next year? I guess it's always a gamble.
 
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