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.
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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!
A while a go I discovered this great no knead bread recipe that showed me it was possible to make truly great bread with minimal work or mess. Seriously if you like good quality bread you MUST try this bread recipe.
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When I first wrote up the bread recipe I promised to experiment with the recipe to make a chilli bread. Well finally at the weekend I got round to playing with the original recipe and after a couple of goes came up with this…
As stated above the bread is really easy to make. I just followed the original recipe and added the following ingredients when mixing the flour, yeast, water and salt.
- 2 finely chopped cayenne peppers
- 1 sprig of finely chopped rosemery
- 1 tablespoon of olive oil
The resulting bread is much like the original, close to a good ciabatta in texture with the faintest hint of rosemery and chilli. I’m really please with this chilli bread though I may continue experimenting, maybe adding some sun dried tomatoes to add another layer of flavor.
Well winter is well and truly approaching as the temperatures are falling and we are in danger of having our first frost. Its about this time of the year that there are a few jobs I’ve been putting off and the garden needs a bit of a tidy up before winter fully sets in.
Many of my chilli plants are looking more than scruffy as the leaves go yellow and start to die away. Now the temperatures have fallen i’ve moved all of my outdoor plants inside the chilli house (a conservatory) to protect them from any early frosts.
Some of the plants foliage has already started to die back, particularly on those plants that have been outside for the last few weeks. Today I’ve trimmed back all of the dead growth and removed any rotting/malformed fruit.
In addition to giving the chilli plants a good haircut i’ve also had a general clean up in the chilli house. This has involved throwing out several dead plants, trimming back what is left of my tomato plants (that are still just about fruiting) and generally having a good sweep up. The aim of this clean up is to help prevent any rot, mould or disease setting in and make my SPring clean a bit of an easier job when the time comes.
Sometime in the next few weeks (when time allows) i’ll select the strongest plants and prepare them for over wintering. Overwintering plants, particularly slow fruiting varieties such as habanero and scotch bonnet enables you to get a good head start on the following season. I’ll write more about this on the time but in the mean time here is some reading to get you ready
– Over Wintering Chillies Guide
– Last years overwintering part 1
– Last years overwintering part 2
– Last years overwintering part 3
