In the past I have overwinter a few peppers but because of the bug issue i stopped doing so. I never really found a benefit from it. I always get more peppers than I can use on first year plants. The trick is to pull it up and trim the roots to match the tops and rinse off really well and replant in new soilless mix. The little yellow sticky traps is helpful also.
Mike, I know this is late, but I get tremendous yields annually from my peppers, and we only use red ones, so they have to ripen completely. I still have many gallons chopped and frozen in the freezer, although I eat them most every day. Every year I end up freezing a huge surplus- but I plant about 20 well spaced plants. A lot of staking is required to weight of harvest doesn’t break up plants and I plant them about 24" apart because plants get quite large by Sept in our climate. In Sept is when the yields start pumping, although I get ripe peppers by July. They keep on bearing huge amounts until first frost (unless you cover plants to keep it coming another 3 weeks).
The main trick is to start plants in Feb. (sorry that we’ve already passed that deadline) in a southern window with a heat mat that assures germination if you keep the plants covered with a plastic top when the sun isn’t shining on them. The other trick is to use varieties that actually produce lots of fruit in our climate. I’ve found several that work (not CA Wonder!), but by far, the sweetest and most productive pepper I grow is Carmine. If you search you may find a seed co. that provides plants already started of this variety- I’ve seen them offered. If you want a bell shaped pepper, Gypsy also produces well, but doesn’t have the very thick walls or size of a classic stuffer.
You can have my surplus as soon as this years start to bear. They are tiny now.
I will post pictures t’mrw but I brought two plants indoors after giving them a Marine’s buzz cut so they looked like a piece of branched driftwood.
I totally washed the soil off the roots and kept 75% of the root mass. I did not affirmatively try to remove any roots but about 25% came off in the process. I put them into 14 inch pots with new “indoor” potting soil (Miracle Grow I think). They started to leaf out within 10 days. Interestingly, even while the leaves were tiny and no new branching had yet started, they started putting out dozens of flower buds. I spent the first two months with my micro-tip scissors snipping off all of the flower buds. Now I will try some from seed and compare to these that I over-wintered.
I will be using the "Rain Gutter Self watering method that Larry Hall touts over in Youtube. It will be perfect for my weekend farmer regimen.
RAIN GUTTER METHOD - THERE ARE MANY VARIANTS TO SUIT EVERY NEED
