As i mentioned in my last post despite being almost mid December my chilli plants still have ripe pods on them. That said thanks t the recent cold weather most of the plants are now looking very tatty with yellowing leaves, the last of the fruit losing their freshness.

Preparation

The first job is to carefully remove from it’s pot to assess the root ball. Assuming all looks healthy I gently rub off some of the compost from around the root ball. On older more mature plants, or those with pot bound root balls I generally trim about 1/3 of the root ball off with some regular pruners. This should encourage new root growth in the early spring when the plants kicks back into life.

With the root ball shaken out and trimmed the next job is to cut the stem about 15cm from the soil line. This seems harsh but it will prevent the plant from trying (in vein) to support the foliage throughout the winter and encourage dormancy.

A quick clean cut with some garden pruners is all that is needed. I’ve heard of some people using various powders or gels on the cut stem to prevent infection entering the plant however i’ve never had any issues so think it unnecessary.

Once trimmed I remove any of the excess foliage or side shoots from the remainder of the stem before getting ready to re-pot the plant. I use my standard potting medium for re-potting.

The fresh compost around the roots will ensure there is plenty of nutrients for the roots when the spring arrives. Once complete a light watering is all that is needed before popping the plants in the greenhouse.

Below is a picture of the of scotch bonnet I over wintered last year. You can see the old main stem that was cut. I was surprised that the plant didn’t put on much new foliage growth over the summer. I suspect the reason is that I didn’t re-pot it into any fresh compost when I over wintered it so it has been in the same potting medium for 2 years. As you can see in the picture below it was quite root bound.

Despite this neglect it produced a steady supply of blistering hot peppers this year. I’m going to try to over winter this plant again and have treated it to a root-cut and some fresh compost so hopefully it’ll repay me with another high yield next year.

Below are the 6 plants I’ll be over wintering this year.There is a couple of orange habaneros, two scotch bonnets, a naga and even the scorched Super Chilli F1 that produced a massive crop.

Where to Store The Plants

A common question we get asked is where to store the plants you are overwintering. Ideally they should be somewhere that stays about 5 degrees, gets some light and has some air circulation. A greenhouse (heated overnight in very cold weather) is ideal.

In my case these plants will  be living in the chilli house over the winter. It is reasonably well insulated with double glazing so I don’t need to worry too much about frosts. If we get a sustained cold period with snow like last year I may put a little electric heater in there overnight just to keep the chill at bay.

I’ve tried overwintering plants in the house before and find that the warm weather encourages them to put on fresh growth too early (before Spring arrives) and therefore the plants miss out on the dormant period.

Left outside chillies will usually get wiped out by heavy frosts or snow. If you don’t have a greenhouse then a windowsill in the shed or garage may do the job, failing that a spare room that isn’t fully heated would be good.

Feeding and Watering

Overwintering plants don’t need a lot of water. As the plants should be dormant for the next couple of months at least be careful not to over water them. Doing so will encourage fungus and disease around the roots.

I generally won’t start feeding them until there are clear signs of fresh growth in the spring. So in the mean times i’ll be planning what seeds to plant and have a think about building my self watering containers.

I was checking out my over wintered scotch bonnet plant at the weekend. Since sprouting new shoots back at the start of March my one surviving plant from last year has been putting on some good growth.

I’ve got plans to try and take some cuttings from this plant once the plant has put out some nice side shoots. More on that in a few weeks….

Upon closer inspection I noticed that there are a couple of small flower buds forming on the plant.Considering the small amount of foliage on the plant this is pretty surprising. I guess the sunny south facing window in the conservatory has encourage the plant to start flowering!

I think i’ll probably pinch these out to encourage more growth in the next few weeks. That said it is tempting to leave them and see how early I could get a ripe bonnet from the plant. I’ll aim to decide what i’ll do in the next week or so.

Well it looks like Spring is here after a week of glorious sunshine. I’m still waiting for some of my seeds to germinate and am going to get busy planting some more in the next week or so.

As you can see below the one surviving chilli plant from last year is really getting going again. I’ve been quite diligent in putting it in our South facing conservatory during the day and moving it to our warmer living room at night. Last night we had another frost so it is worth keeping an eye on the weather forecast at this time of year. If possible move your plants or seedlings to a warm place at night as a cold drafty windowsill can kill young seedlings or fresh growth on an over wintered plant.

I mentioned in my last post that I’d planted quite a few old seeds I’ve had kicking around for quite a few years. After keeping them all in the airing cupboard for about 3 weeks only a couple of seeds germinated. After having top go away for a couple of days at short notice they perished while i was away so I have decided to stop flogging a dead horse and start again using fresh seeds.

It seems a bit of a waste but I’m going to throw out all of the old seeds that I’ve amassed over the last few years. This year I’ll do my best to use all of the seeds i buy so as to get the highest  germination rates and avoid wastage.

Being mid March already i’m a bit behind on my usual growing season so i’ll be using some artificial lighting in the coming weeks to play a bit of catch up once i finally get some chilli seedlings up and growing.

Well for quite a while now my chilli plants that i am over wintering have been looking increasingly dead.After trimming them back in December,  the plants have been looking so dormant i thought they were dead. First of all the stems took on a hallow look then the stems themselves started to turn black in colour which is never a good sign.

Despite appearing dead I have kept the plants inside and tried to keep them on a sunny windowsill as much as possible. Something that I haven’t perhaps done enough is move them away from the windowsill when the night time temperatures have been really low. As a result the cold drafts and low temperatures may have taken their toll on some of the plants.

However, I’m pleased to report that at the weekend one of the plants (an orange habanero) started to show signs of life. A couple of fresh shoots of growth have popped out of the dead looking stem.It just goes to show that you need to be patient when over wintering as it had crossed my mind to throw the plants away a couple of weeks ago.

It must be said that this plant had the  least black looking stem of the plants so i suspect it may be the only plant to survive the winter. That said i’ve moved all of the plants to the sunniest window in the house and have even started to draw the curtains for them at night!

Time will tell if any other plants have made it through the winter. If not i’ll have at least one plant with a massive head start for the 2011 chilli growing season.

Have you over wintered any plants? We’d be interested to hear your success/failure stories. Just leave a comment below.

Having selected a few plants to over winter a few weeks ago i trimmed them back to help them preserve their energy over the cold months and moved them inside to keep them away from the very cold temperatures.

Unfortunately we ran out of heating oil for about 1 week just before Christmas and as a result it was very cold in the house as outdoor temperatures dropped as low as -12 degrees.

So far I have not seen any new growth on these over wintering chilli plants and they have all developed worrying looking hallow stems. I do hope the plants arenot dead.

I have been here before in previous years thinking the plants are dead, only for them to suddenly burst back into life. For now i’ll try and keep the plants warm and watered and hope for the best. Fingers crossed!

Has anyone else out there noticed this hallow stem in their over wintering plants? How are your plants doing?

Unfortunately I left this poor plant outside a few weeks ago when i began to over winter my plants. I went outside at the weekend to discover it sitting in about 5 inches of snow.

In order to give the plants I moved inside the best chance I am using my trusty greenhouse heater to keep the overnight temperature in the chilli house above freezing.

I just trimmed back a couple of other chilli plants I have been keeping in the house in order to over winter them.

Fingers crossed all of the plants will make it through this very cold spell.

Here in the UK the snow is falling and winter is most definitely here. As i mentioned a few weeks ago while i was having a tidy of the chilli house, over wintering some of my best plants is very much on my mind.

On our main over wintering article we discuss how to over winter chilli plants. Success rates can be a bit hit or miss (as i found out last year when i lost all of my plants) but it is well worth doing, particularly for late fruiting or slow growing varieties like habaneros, naga, bhut jolokia etc.

For not much effort you can have a chance of having fully established plants raring to flower as soon as Spring arrives in earnest. Definitely worth it in my opinion…

To over winter my plants I simply strip back all of the foliage and cut back the main stem so it is about 20cm high. In the past i have trimmed back the root balls slightly however this years plants were kept in quite small pots so i’m not going to bother.

After trimming I keep the plants indoors to avoid the cold and water them about once a week. Fingers crossed this batch will fare better than last years!

Disaster has struck my efforts to overwinter a number of chilli plants.

Before going away for a 3 week holiday in the new year I entrusted my overwintering plants top my fathers care as I didn’t want to leave them unwatered for about 3 and a half weeks. At my dads they were moved to a workshop window where there was minimal heating compared to my warm living room.

Well upon my return I received news that the plants had not taken well to the sudden change in temperature. They had dropped all of their leaves and looked decidedly unhappy with life.

I brought them back home and kept them watered in the hope that they would survive however i’ve now come to accept that they have not made it through the winter.

While obviously disappointed that all of my plants failed to make it through the winter I have learned a valuable lesson for next year. Overwintering chilli plants require a warm consistent temperature. It was most likely the sudden shock of moving from my warm flat to a cold workshop that killed them.

I know they are dead because when I snipped the stems of a few of them the inside was completely dried out and hollow.

Oh well, onwards and upwards…best i get on and plant some seeds to make up the loss!

Does anyone have any success stories with overwintering this year? If so do leave a comment below.

Back in mid October I prepared my chilli plants for overwintering.  I chose 9 plants in total; 2 varieties of habanero, 1 birds eye, 1 apache, 1 Bulgarian Carrot and 1 Super Chilli F1. They were all chopped back so that only about 5 inches of the stem remained and they were moved inside onto a south facing window sill in the living room.

Because I didn’t plant any seeds  until March this year, some of the plants had only just started to fruit so taking them through the winter seemed like an ideal way to get the most out of the plants by letting them fruit into a second year.

In my  last update in mid November the plants had burst back into life. Well i can report that they have continued to do so. In fact so much so that some of the plants are flowering again! It will be interesting to see if any of them produce any fruit. The main reason they have come back to life i am sure is because of the constant warm temperatures they now get on their sunny living room window sill.

At this stage i am unsure whether to leave them be or to cut them back again to try and help them conserve energy and go dormant for a month or two. What I am going to do is leave about half the plants as they are and re trim the remainder back to about 5 inches above the stem.

I’ll report back on the progress in another month or so. I’d be interested to hear about your success (or not) stories about over wintering chillies.

Well it has been almost a month since i brought my chilli plants inside to overwinter them. As you can see from the photographs below they have burst back into life since i chopped them back in the middles of October.

Overwintering Chillies Burst Back To Life

There are two main reasons the plants have sprung back to life:

1. Heat: The plants have been moved from the cool/cold temperatures of October into my living room which is usually a round a steady 18 degrees.
2. Light: Most of the plants i am attempting to overwinter were in a rather shady part of my garden which got very little direct sunlight. The windowsill where they have been moved to is south facing so receives a fare amount of any sunshine the UK Autumn has to offer. As a result (despite the days getting shorter) they are probably receiving about the same, if not more light than they were a month ago.

I expect that as the daylight hours continue to reduce (as winter draws in) the plants growth will slow if not stops and perhaps the plants may shed their new found leaves.

I’ll post another update in a month or so with some progress on how the plants are doing.