Overwintered Chillies - How Are They Doing?

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Mandy Lam on February 6, 2011 at 15:21

Hi Stephen!

 

I'm quite excited you've started this discussion as I overwintered 3 of my chilli plants for the first time. They are Hungarian Hot Wax chillies and all I did was cut them so the stem was about 10cm long - I didn't bother adding any new compost or anything, just watered them a little roughly once a week. They've been on the windowsill and have now got quite a few new leaves and one of my plants has even got some flower buds growing!

 

So do you recommend I pinch off the buds/leaves?

 

Thanks

 

Mandy

Permalink Reply by Louisa @ The Really Good Life on February 6, 2011 at 15:22

Due to a completely uncharacteristic (ahem) bout of laziness (leaving the plant inside after being brought in for harvesting), I've inadvertently overwintered some chillis.  No new growth yet so there is a possibility that even indoors, it was too cold for them but I'll leave them for alone for now and see if they recover.  No biggie if they don't, but would be nice if they did.

Permalink Reply by Stephen Shirley on February 6, 2011 at 17:35

Hi Mandy

I would indeed give them a pinch here and there; the idea is not to remove the leaves - just simply to encourage branching / a more compact plant at the moment. Flower bud wise I would remove as they are way to early to do anything useful.

Stephen

Mandy Lam said:

Hi Stephen!

 

I'm quite excited you've started this discussion as I overwintered 3 of my chilli plants for the first time. They are Hungarian Hot Wax chillies and all I did was cut them so the stem was about 10cm long - I didn't bother adding any new compost or anything, just watered them a little roughly once a week. They've been on the windowsill and have now got quite a few new leaves and one of my plants has even got some flower buds growing!

 

So do you recommend I pinch off the buds/leaves?

 

Thanks

 

Mandy

Permalink Reply by James Fowkes on May 2, 2011 at 12:59

Not a great year for me this year. I have managed to keep a some chilli nasu peppers, a jalapeno plant just about hung on. My krokatoa plant is already producing chillis and is now in its third successful year! Also i have my current prize plant the black naga, got a picture here. http://chillipepperheaven.blogspot.com/search/label/Overwintering

Permalink Reply by Rozzie on May 4, 2011 at 23:50

Hey, bit late in replying to this but I overwintered my chillis.  It was my first year growing last year and so I was a bit late in starting (August!) so my chillis weren't at producing stage. (Also can't remember exact variety off the top of my head, but a fairly common one)  As I don't have anywhere outside to grow these were grown solely on my windowsill.  They went dormant over the winter and are now flowering beautifully.  I had to pinch back a ton of leaves which suddenly sprouted when they came out of hibernation.  This allowed them to get the buds out and I'm now leaving them to it. Should be producing very soon :)  Though they were indoors protected from frost and insects, they were in the only room with no heating, (but it also heats up the most with natural light).  I didn't give them any artifical light or heat as I wanted to see how they would get on if left alone. They did well!!

Permalink Reply by Zoe on May 12, 2011 at 15:08

I haven't overwintered any chillis but I am growing some this year.  So I was wondering how I would go about overwintering them??  Could they stay in an unheated greenhouse, or would they need to come inside?

Permalink Reply by Stephen Shirley on May 12, 2011 at 19:47

Unheated - no. Chopped back and on a windowsill indoors yes, no problem.

Permalink Reply by Zoe on May 13, 2011 at 7:52

OK.  I'll bring the best one of each type indoors this year & see how they fair.

Permalink Reply by Richard Walton on May 19, 2011 at 11:43

I overwintered 5 of my plants (jalapeno). Two bolted and the others are doing well. Kept them on a window sill and watered them every ten days. Had to pinch out the bolters and deflowered two others, but left one as a 'control' plant to see what grows better.

Permalink Reply by Rozzie on May 22, 2011 at 22:45

Just an update on my overwintered chilli plants - been producing for just over a week now.  The first few sets of flowers didn't take despite me manually fertilizing them.  Just as a heads up for anyone else who has done this - the flowers will set eventually and will produce :)  Got some fairly large chillis now and going to do my first picking tomorrow :)