overwintering Yet Another Over-Winter Project

[Siliman]

My ground rules: pull plant from ground before frost. Extreme cut of stems and root ball, complete defoliation, pot down in small containers with clean mix. Establish growth with south facing sun, but consider moving to east facing if growth too rapid.

Preemptive bug strike: Fill top of container with 1/2-inch perlite. Dust entire area where fungus gnats like to crawl with Diatamaceous Earth. Keep top of perlite dry as possible, using bottom watering. After watering, dry area including drain holes, reapply DE as needed.

The contenders: Siling Labuyo, Twisted Jalapeno, Aji Rojo, NuMex Bailey Pequin

You can see these are 'bonchi' size without the cool root system showing. I just hope to keep them alive growing slow and then make them vigorous again in a few months. Pot up around March 1. Put back in ground around May 21st.

And keep fungus gnats thoroughly defeated....

 

[PIC 1]

Siliman,

Looking good,
You can always monitor the gnats with the "yellow sticky" cards.

Greg

 

[PepperJam]

Looks good. In addition to the bionide orchard fruit spray pepper-guru advised, i also made a cinnamon - diametecious earth powder mix and sprinkled it on the soil in each overwinter container. i hear ants hate cinnamon, and diametecous earth will shred any insects that try to get in that area.

 

[AlabamaJack]

I recommend this to treat your overwinters with...works well for me and it is organic if that makes a difference...just a mixture of natural oils...

http://www.homedepot.com/Outdoors/h_d1/N-5yc1vZbx82/R-202279709/h_d2/ProductDisplay?langId=-1&storeId=10051&catalogId=10053

 

[Siliman]

... You can always monitor the gnats with the "yellow sticky" cards...

Copy that! This is a must if you are over-wintering long term.

I monitored the heck out of them last year. By February, it was really too late. And if a problem develops beyond control, get the o.w. plants the heck away from your seedlings. That's another big headache.

Last year's gnat drama:

 

[Siliman]

Looks good. In addition to the bionide orchard fruit spray pepper-guru advised, i also made a cinnamon - diametecious earth powder mix and sprinkled it on the soil in each overwinter container. i hear ants hate cinnamon, and diametecous earth will shred any insects that try to get in that area.

I'm with you on that. By keeping the container top dry and the DE laced within, it should be effective for all indoor plant killers. I tried the cinnamon last time, but feel it didn't work because by that time the f. gnats were well established in the soil.

 

[Siliman]

I recommend this to treat your overwinters with...works well for me and it is organic if that makes a difference...just a mixture of natural oils...
http://www.homedepot.com/Outdoors/h_d1/N-5yc1vZbx82/R-202279709/h_d2/ProductDisplay?langId=-1&storeId=10051&catalogId=10053

Thanks, AJ, I'll keep that product in the holster. Your methods have helped my grow regimen a lot, so its on the list. Right now, the perlite 'cap' with DE death traps has me confident. This year, I am on top of their game!

In regards to pre-treatment, I should have mentioned when I pulled the plants out of the ground, I not only severely chopped everything, but I spray- treated the remaining stems, roots and all, with a Neem oil and soap mix prior to replanting in fresh mix in their little pots.

Cruel me....but they live....

 

[Siliman]

Time for a monthly update! Only about 3 more months to go before these guys resume life outside.

The perlite "cap" treated with Diatamaceious Earth is performing flawlessly. Last year by this time, I had a lot of gnats and the aphids started in. So far, no bugs. Keeping fingers crossed, long time to go. I've not had to add much additional DE since the initial setup.

I decided to keep these in the south window. My plan was to keep foliage down, but with no bugs, I'm going to let them roll at this location. There been no additional lighting than a few hours of south sun.

The twisted jalapeno is now 1 full year old. It was a very good producer last year, I hope it goes for another turn. The little sprouts in the bottom are Cayenne and Pequin. After I dehydrated some pods in November, I removed the seeds and tossed them in the pot as a bug deterent. Tough buggers, took 110F heat for a couple of days, still viable.

The little sprouts are kind of cool in my bonchi sized plants, but I'll have to pluck them sometime. This Pequin is getting overrun. Nice to have new growth to see if the aphids find it. So far, so good.

This Aji Rojo took so long to get ripe pods for me, so I hope this overwinter gives it a jump start. It really likes what is going on so far. The powder is one of my favorites. The pods look exactly like a small turd, however!

Will report again next month.....

 

[Butch T]

Lookin nice so far!

 

[Siliman]

Time to update the over-wintered plants, they must think they are the bastid step children. Little do they know, they were my favorite plants last year.

Recap: Once I ripped them from the good earth last Autumn, I washed them thoroughly, sprayed them with Neem oil, put them in little pots and into a south facing window. I topped their soil (mostly Gardner & Bloome potting mix) with a thick layer of Perlite and dusted the vicinity with Diatamaceous Earth.

Here is the original treatment: that's a shot glass for size reference.

The only reason for these extreme steps was the relentless attack on last year's over-wintered plants by Fungus Gnats, and their subsequent march on my seedlings.

Happy to say, it is now March, and I have had a 99.99% gnat-free environment this winter. What a joy not to worry about the new plants in my seedling grow area getting those F-ing F-Gnats.

So here are the plants after 4-months indoors in a south facing window, with little attention, little water, and only recently some food. (yes, i could be charged with a cruelty-to-plants crime). Scroll to top of page to compare the pix of their indoor beginning and their growth now:

The small plants below the main stems are the dehydrated seeds I threw in there as a bug deterrent. Heck, they sprouted and have been living a lawn-like existence this entire winter. I even "mow" them from time to time.

Here is a recent hit from my arch enemy. I let down my guard on this Siling Labuyo bonchi by top watering and exposing some soil. A month later, somehow, the gnat found its way: TO ITS DOOM!!! HAHAHAHA. Take this message to your entire species, you worthless indoor predator:

After seeing that, I laced some additional DE in the area. In summary, if you attempted over-wintering and suffered F-Gnat issues, you might consider this extreme pre-emptive strike on their civilization.

The over-winter plant fellas donated some of their plant tips as attempted clones. top L to R: siling labuyo, Cumari from a cut seedling, bottom: Bailey Pequin x 2. Also a couple of Aji Rojo, not pictured. I'll transer this action to my 2012 GLOG:

 

[Pash]

Here is a recent hit from my arch enemy. I let down my guard on this Siling Labuyo bonchi by top watering and exposing some soil. A month later, somehow, the gnat found its way: TO ITS DOOM!!! HAHAHAHA. Take this message to your entire species, you worthless indoor predator:

Hahahaha! Security is pretty tight at the Siliman household. Nice work.

I'm going to take a cue from you and treat my overwinters with respect. Mine stayed outside this winter and half of them died. Your overwinters look absolutely perfect.

 

[Siliman]

Hey, thanks Pash! I appreciate the encouragement. I was so bummed about gnats last year, I swore I would not over-winter again. But I studied every aspect of those bastids life cycle and improvised a defense.

It's tough sledding in the long Idaho winter window.After that drastic pruning and months of relatively low light, they aren't very pretty, lot of sucker type of stems. They haven't really put on much foliage, some leggy, and have some yellowing. But they are alive! My next move is to pot up into some Pro Mix BX and give them full water and nutes by the middle of the month. The clones will be bonus if they make it.

Also, I reached the conclusion last year that over-wintering in So Cal, TX and Florida is way different than here, and the rules are thus way different for 6-weeks indoors vs. 6-months slog. So I don't blame you for leaving yours outside--in many cases you could pull it off down south....

 

[rabid48]

Just curious, what are your indoor temps like? Those plants look pretty darn happy for being so neglected! lol

 

[Siliman]

Temps run 60F at night to around 67F during the day. Watering maybe once a month. The Aji Rojo is real happy, but the others are declining compared to January pix. I hope a pot up (or re-pot sideways) in ProMix will light their fire.

Talk about neglect, what cracks me up were the seedling volunteers. They are a mix of Cayenne, de Arbol, Thai Hot and NuMex Twilight seeds leftover from dehydrating. (Made a Sriracha type sauce from those pods.) I just tossed them in the pots, thinking they were dead after 2 days at about 120F. They germinated in those colder conditions, grew through the perlite, and survive on really short water rations. Go figure....

 

[socapots]

wow..
that is looking really good man. I had a pretty big gnat infestation but so far plants have been surviving. I will certainly be trying the perlite layer next winter. and looking into this bottom watering.

thanks for a great post.