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!