overwintering chillie plants

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overwintering chillie plants
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madcat

Joined: 24 May 2008
Posts: 1265
Location: worcester

Posted: Mon Oct 10, 11 6:38 pm Post subject: overwintering chillie plants
I want to try this ,I hate to see healthy productive plants cut down by the cold. How can I do this ,how cold is too cold and what about watering and general care.It gets cold round here,minus 19 last year I believe so would an unheated double glazed [k glass] porch be too cold,it faces south west .

jamanda
Downsizer Moderator

Joined: 22 Oct 2006
Posts: 35082
Location: Devon

Posted: Mon Oct 10, 11 8:47 pm Post subject:
I have the same dilemma, so would be interested to hear views.

wildfoodie

Joined: 05 Apr 2005
Posts: 2169

Posted: Mon Oct 10, 11 8:55 pm Post subject:
me too! the chocolate habanero has finally produced a couple of fruits.... we have a south facing conservatory which got to about 8C last year. anywhere else which might be warmer in our house will be lacking in light. what's more important do you think,warmth or light levels?

tai haku

Joined: 17 Apr 2011
Posts: 472

Posted: Mon Oct 10, 11 9:05 pm Post subject:

OK - here's my thoughts:

Freezing is to cold. Pretty much anything above freezing is OK I reckon but decent amounts of warmth are better.

Light is important too but I wouldn't stress too much over it. I overwinter all my plants in a conservatory which faces west and gets direct sun from about 1130 but I think a windowsill would serve too.

The absolute killer is too much moisture and hence rot - keep your plants pretty dry if you can, even to the point of wilting and/or dropping leaves - your plants can and will recover from dropping all their leaves; they probably won't if the roots start to rot out.

Lastly don't be afraid to cut back your plants hard and even trim the roots back and put them in a little pot if you're short of room - the alternative is starting a plant from seed again so by contrast cutting back is still a big head start. My preference is not to cut back if at all possible though but better that than waste plants due to lack of space.

This is well worth a look if you want inspiration:
https://fatalii.net/growing/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=95&Itemid=105

jamanda
Downsizer Moderator

Joined: 22 Oct 2006
Posts: 35082
Location: Devon

Posted: Mon Oct 10, 11 9:47 pm Post subject:
So how long will an individual chilli plant keep growing for? Years?

Andrea

Joined: 02 May 2005
Posts: 2260
Location: Portugal

Posted: Tue Oct 11, 11 6:50 am Post subject:
We had a guest who claimed to be a chilli expert. She dug all our best plants up, cut them right back (roots and foliage), then packed them in a wooden crate in the outside bathroom with the root balls just covered with some straw for protection. Sadly we had a worse then normal frost and I never got the opportunity to see whether it would have worked ....

Shan

Joined: 13 Jan 2009
Posts: 9075
Location: South Wales

Posted: Tue Oct 11, 11 7:33 am Post subject:
I do know that chilli plants go onfor years and years and years!

wildfoodie

Joined: 05 Apr 2005
Posts: 2169

Posted: Tue Oct 11, 11 7:42 am Post subject:
In sulawesi I was in a fantastic hillside home stay with a lady called Mama Siska. - her garden had them planted at the base of coffee bushes where they had some protection from fierce sun. She told me they were perennials.

gz

Joined: 23 Jan 2009
Posts: 8980
Location: Ayrshire, Scotland

Posted: Tue Oct 11, 11 7:45 am Post subject:
I kept one for a couple of years, but I seem to get whitefly (or something similar) every time I try this

madcat

Joined: 24 May 2008
Posts: 1265
Location: worcester

Posted: Tue Oct 11, 11 9:24 am Post subject:

thanks tai haku ,is your conservatory heated? the only warmth in our porch comes from the house inner front door which is single glazed and the bit of warmth from the freezer in the utility room next door.To be honest with the badly insulated flat roof and all I am not sure if it would stay above freezing in there in the sort of cold we had last year.
I did try to keep a plant one year and had blasted aphids and whitefly to contend with.
Iam going to try with the most important plant in the house and a sacrificial one in the porch.I will save some seeds from my favourite 2 plants as a back up.

gray_b

Joined: 24 Jun 2011
Posts: 254
Location: Leafy Shires of the Midlands

Posted: Tue Oct 11, 11 4:02 pm Post subject:
If you over winter geraniums, then keep your chillis in the same place (frost free, but not warm about 5 deg C, in the cool shade). Slow down on the watering as you would geraniums, because you want the soil just ever so slightly damp, but not wet. You can keep them for years, but in my experience they do tend to decline. So I used to renew every 3 years.

tai haku

Joined: 17 Apr 2011
Posts: 472

Posted: Tue Oct 11, 11 6:26 pm Post subject:

madcat wrote:

my conservatory is not separated from the house by a wall - just an opening but it still gets pretty cold (though never freezing). I'd keep the one you want in the house in that case.

Shan

Joined: 13 Jan 2009
Posts: 9075
Location: South Wales

Posted: Wed Oct 12, 11 7:24 am Post subject:
I read somewhere that chillis are most productive in year 3 - I'm sorry I can't recall the source. Here is a useful guide on overwintering chillis: https://www.thechilliking.com/growing/over-wintering/

wildfoodie

Joined: 05 Apr 2005
Posts: 2169

Posted: Wed Oct 12, 11 8:00 am Post subject:

This is looking very promising! I have 5 plants I'm going to try and keep over winter, a chocolate habanero, 2 red scotch bonnets A stupidly hot chilli from saved seed from somewhere, and what I hope is a bhut jolokia chilli plant (ID label has got lost) which has a very different spreading habit, sort of flat topped. It had loads of flowers but they all dropped off before fruit set. Would be fantastic to keep them all going until next year...

sarahloo

Joined: 01 Jun 2007
Posts: 125
Location: Reading, Berkshire

Posted: Thu Oct 20, 11 9:15 am Post subject:
I manage to overwinter chillis on my north-facing single-glazed very-draughty windowsill at home. They do drop their leaves and look dead though... But I have to put them outside as soon as possible in the spring because they really need the sun by then!

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