Up here in zone 6 we have a short growing seasons, so I always want to find ways to overwinter peppers, which I grow in 5 gallon buckets.
Last year, I took the healthiest ones, trimmed them down to almost no leaves, and put them in the basement under some grow lights. The basement gets pretty cold — mid 40s, including one time when the heater failed in a cold snap and I’m surprised the peppers made it when the pipes nearly froze — but they survived, barely, both the cold and the bugs the inevitably emerged despite my heavy neem oil before I brought them in.
However, I have a lot of peppers, too many to fit in the 5 gallon buckets in a corner of basement. I’m not sure if the grow lights help or hurt. And also, they struggled so much that — even with a developed root system head start — I’m not sure they are healthier or more prolific this summer than the ones I started from seed indoors in March and moved outside at the same time in early May.
I’m curious what people do to overwinter peppers in general, and any specific tips for someone in zone 6 with limited basement space.
i over wintered Huainan sweet potato and it worked well, had bugs too and no amount of neem oil helped eliminate them completely. it did start to die at the end of winter so i took them out side in spring and they started to come back to life they have grown like an invasive species of weed this year.
That’s been my experience with overwintering peppers too. They are so weak by the end of winter and the older woody growth doesn’t seem to grow very quickly. So I just start new seedlings every year in February under some grow lights and heating mats indoors.
It is much easier to start peppers 3 month early and set them out as large flowering plants than to put them up in fall. If your plants do very well in fall you can try to bring them inside.
The right varieties (serrano, chiltepin and few others) (not habaneros, jalapenos, or any large pepper variety, If you grow those, forget it). I overwinter under roof but outdoors, they even keep growing peppers, contrary to what people think, pruning peppers during winter is a bad idea, plants produce energy with their leaves, so they basically starve if you remove the leaves. It only gets to 28 degrees Fahrenheit here, so it might not work for you but if they survived freezing pipes, they might.
I’ve overwintered a Habanada indoors for the past 2 winters. Overwintered two big Trinidad Perfume and a Nadapeno last winter. Just dug them out of the garden, potted them up and brought them into the house, jus before killing frosts.
I only pruned back the Nadapeno as an afterthought, after watching a video, but other than taking up less space, I’m not sure it was necessary.
We have a large sunroom with in-floor radiant heat, and the peppers spent the winter in the foyer/hall.
On sunny winter days with temps above 50, I’d move them onto the sunny front porch for a few hours and water them well.
All are in- ground in the garden at the moment and are loaded with peppers.
I have been over wintering hot peppers for about 3yrs in an unheated but attached garage under shop lights. They generally stay stagnant but may put on a few leaves. Aphids are common problem. When I get those I take them out on a warm day and spray them off with water. This buys some temporary relief probably enough to see them through till they can go out. Last year I brought in 2 of those plants(orange hab and chocolate hab) inside the house and provided them with strong LED light. This was about 2 months before they could go out in early April. These 2 did very well for me this year and had early peppers.
Tried multiple times. Gave them the best south window and so on… As soon as they done fruiting they start to decline. Bugs are really big issue. So to prolong growing season I start them early as February - they tolerate artificial light much better when they young. They usually go in the ground with half size fruit hanging in the end of May and produce till first frost in October.
A neighbor used to grow peppers and 5 gallon bucket‘s in his garden. With holes in the bottom , allowing them to root in the garden soil.
Just Before the killing freeze of fall, he would move those buckets of pepper plants full of ripe peppers into a cool basement with no light. He could pick peppers well into winter off those plants . Not with the intention of overwintering the plants, just to extend the harvest season of fresh fruit into winter.
Seemed to work well. Better than keeping in the refrigerator
I overwinter couple of tropical vegetable plants that takes 2 years to fruit, so thought this might be helpful. They are in a 5 gallon bucket, when I bring them inside I prune them so that the stem is shortened with multiple nodes for the plant to branch out. I just put them where they’re barely some ambient light and water them probably once or twice (0.25 gallon) they sprout a couple of leaves but they don’t grow.
Sometime in April, I expose them to more light (there isn’t much here in Portland until mid May) and put them out to couple of times to harden. Once it’s warm enough I water them well and give them fish fertilizer and Foliage Pro in diluted quantities. They come back excellent and prolific. Below pic from one of the plant.
Peppers IMO are much easier as annuals, start early under lights and they deliver goods by June. This Red Habanero started in March and in a 3 gal pot is loaded with peppers.
I am also in zone 6 and tried to do something like you describe with an aji amarillo in a 7 gal grow bag. I was hoping that overwintering it would allow it to bear fruit earlier the next year. Typically I would run up against the end of the season having only collected a couple of ripe chiles and leaving a dozen or two on the plant. I put it in the basement under a grow light with a 10 hour timer. My basement does not get quite so cold - say upper 50s at night. I also watered it a couple of time to avoid letting everything completely dry out. The humidity in the house is pretty low in the winter when the heat runs. Sadly, I was not successful. The plant never came back in the spring (or at all for that matter).
Sounds like you’re having a pretty rough time with your peppers. Peppers are tropical and cannot tolerate anything under 50 degrees F. In south Texas habaneros grow like trees do here in the mid south. So if you put those babies in a controlled environment with shop lights without pruning they will persist into the next season. One of your respondents has been doing that for a few years with good results. I guess you just have to have enough room. Keep at it. I’m sure you’ll work something out to make it all work for you.
Since my wife loves to cook with citrus I’m stuck on raising Meyer lemons and Key limes along with grapefruit and Persian limes(for use in Cosmopolitans). All in containers. They don’t like the cold either. I finally put them on wheels and now roll them into and out of our garage which is heated and cooled. As with you, our biggest problem is with bugs…mealy and scale. Use regular neem oil root soaks to keep them away and that seems to be working. I do like the others here and, on a warm sunny day I take them out and hit them with jets of water to get the numbers down so the neem can work more effectively.
I’m beginning to think that growing peppers as annuals in 6b may just make more sense. It’s tough because I don’t even have a lot of room to start them all, and I’ve never gotten them to where some of y’all have where they are fruiting indoors in May. And it just seems like such a waste to have these big beautiful peppers in September that I’ve put so much work and soil and fertilizer into. Oh well. I still have most of my peppers from last winter frozen and never even ate them — I just love growing them (and one day hope to learn to make hot sauce).
I do have one jigsaw pepper in a pot that I usually try to grow in a window because it’s so damn pretty.
It’s my curse to love to grow tropicals in 6b. I have some sunny windows, but between my mango, guavas, bananas, mandarins, kumquats, and lemon, there’s only so much sunny window to go around!
my basement stays above 50 so they go in the window there.
I use Neem and also just douse them to hell with sevin, right before I bring them in. kills everything. I’m not eating from them again until spring so I’ll use any kind of bug killer on em. I’ve overwintered all kinds, I usually get an early second year crop from them, the second or third winter they stall out and I plant fresh really early, in winter, new starts those years.
I have a Myers lemon and a lime that I overwintered inside in 6b. They are outside now and doing well. The lemon tree has one lemon. They were 75 percent off at Walmart last late fall and I said why not!
Update on my single Myers lemon. Turning yellow and coming down home stretch. If it knew it was overwintering in my bathroom it might not be so happy. It’s the only place in my house with good light (skylight) and room on the floor.
