overwintering pepper plants?

I am new to growing plants, this year i grew bell pepper plants, and they did pretty well. what is the proper procedure to keep them alive over the winter? i have them in buckets, and i do have a room that i could keep them in, however, the window faces north and not much sunlight comes in, so should i purchase a grow light for them? If so, what kind?

 

I keep my Habanero peppers plants outside year round here (I live in about a zone 10b area) and they kinda die back a bit in winter and then start grow back in spring. They are going on about 6-7 years now. I don't' know much about growing indoors but if they have enough water, light and warmth they should be alright.

 

you can sustain them using a .. 70W Fluorescent Compact Security Light 6200 lumens from home depot..
pretty simple, if you want just get a extension cord and cut the plug off it. keep it long so you can plug it in somewhere. follow the instructions and use the wire nuts to attach the cord. Simply bolt it to the wall and plug it in ..

Take the glass shield off with a philips head driver and it will be very bright. (bright enough for Pepper plants to grow.. (you can leave the glass on, but we're using it to grow so its much more efficient without the shield.

add a timer to it to make it easier on you..
http://www.homedepot.ca/webapp/wcs/...ode+matchall&recN=131617&N=0&Ntk=P_PartNumber
these are on sale for $29.oo sometimes.> look around other hardware stores.

 

Hi,

I apply less water to mine during the winter. That's all. The window is facing south, but that doesn't matter much. The room temperature is mostly between 10 and 20 degree centigrade. The guys survived the last two winters under this treatment .

Regards
Gyro

 

I was gonna ask this question too, so the plants will survive inside then ???
would they prefer a south or north facing window ??

 

north should be your morning sun ..

 

It comes more thru the south come to think of it, so you think i should put them in the morning sun then ?

 

my mother grows pepper plants and over the winter the
temperature gets down to min4°C the plant drops its leaves,after this the plant is all stem its now dormant and doesn't need much watering, spring out of the dormant stage and begins to grow

 

Hi --

I grow peppers to sell and sold about 2000 last year. Planted a garden of 115 of them this year and got a great crop!

Habanero peppers (and pequin) are known to overwinter pretty well in my area, Zone 7b. Bell peppers are much less cold hardy and die off every year.

I don't know anywhere that the light comes in the north windows. The sun rises in the east, travels to the West and comes in from the South. Maybe at the South Pole the sun comes from the north! lol....

As far as electric lights, I can't help you, but I do know that if the plants don't get a goodly amount of light, they are subject to spider mites, aphids and other pests. You could use Orthene (acephate) on them through th winter to control the bugs, but I don't eat the fruit unless there are many weeks between the last application.

Also, you might consider watching the weather and on warm days putting the plants outside to get some real sun.

Bob

 

Awww, what pretty bell peppers ... I have never overwintered any. Considering the lugging around of (how heavy?) huge buckets of damp dirt and the unlikeliness of getting much out of them, plus how easy it is to start new plants in Spring, it hardly seems worth it, unless you're just doing it for the same reason people climb mountains ...

 

Hi --

MindingMyOwnBeeswax, I can think of a good reason to overwinter peppers. Have you seen the giant peppers in the grocery stores? These are not grown in areas that have freezing conditions in the Winter for long periods of time. They are grown in S. Florida, S. Texas, S. California, or in other words - South! The reason is that the plants get bigger and bigger and so do the fruit!

If you over winter peppers then plant them out in the Spring the next year, you too can grow giant fruit on them!

Bob

 

I hadn't heard about giant fruit on older pepper plants. I thought they didn't produce as MUCH as they got older(?), the second year, etc.

 

:cheers2:...

 

just coz the plant is older don't mean it gets giant fruits it dont

 

Good morning,

at the moment I have plants that are one, two and three years old. I can't say the older ones grow bigger fruits, but they grow more fruits. Well, my sample is small, so don't take the observation as a general rule.

Regards
Gyro

 

Hi --

Of course there are limitations by the species. I have jalapeno peppers that never get bigger than 2 inches long and it wouldn't matter how large the plant was, they will never get bigger. I also have TAM jalapenos which put out small, 3 inch fruit early in the year, but by fall are putting out 6 inch fruit just when the cool hits. If I over-winter them, they will put out much bigger fruit next spring.

I have anaheim chilis that were growing fruit only 5-6 inches long and are just starting to grow fruit 8 inches long when the cool weather hits and limits their size. If I saved them over winter and replanted them out in the Spring, they would finally put out 10-12 inch peppers with heavy walls. Unfortunately, these pepper plants are too large to save.

I have bell peppers that put out small fruit in the mid-summer and are just now putting out bigger ones when the cool weather hit. I may actually try to save these in the greenhouse over winter in 1 gallon pots. They never got taller than 3 feet and I know they will go to 5 feet or bigger.

Older plants can certainly hold larger fruit up to the limit of the variety size. I know this by experience.

Bob

 

Well, ive been giving them the north window light and ive been putting them outside on warmer days. Its a pain though, cus theyre in those big buckets, and some are heavy and i have so many. im still looking into getting a light, im giving them a bit of florescent right now with the window light. The window is a bit small and isnt covering all of the plants, so ive been rotating them. I really dont want them to die, theyre still fruiting. I dont know if theyre late on fruiting? I would think that they would be ready in october.

 

http://www1.au.shopping.com/-green+house

 

Tam jalapenos ... one of the kinds of seed I'd like to try ... next year! So ... maybe I'll try digging up one of my Topepo Rosso pepper plants and try letting it grow inside! They're FINALLY putting out peppers. You're a stronger person'n me, though, GhostLyric, moving those things in and out.

 

yeah they're a little late fruiting, you should sow your seeds around february time, that way they can germinate and start to grow big just in time for the middle of spring - begining of summer when they will start to flower and fruit