I see that the common way to overwinter plants is keeping them in the dark with minimal water. I don't see how plants can survive that for months. So im trying it for the first time. Second picture is my current plants in my grow tent, that will stay on all winter.
by miguel-122
17 Comments
I live in a warm place and have a grow tent. I dont need to do this, but i want to try it myself
Peppers are resilient.
Peppers are a shady tropical perennial that in their natural climate live under the canopy of trees. In the tropics they have an unlimited growing season and can afford the lower light levels, we only grow them in full sun so we can get meaningful harvests out of a short growing season.
As for overwintering, ambient sunlight through a window should be plenty.
I’m actually curious myself. I still don’t quite understand pepper plant dormancy. I’m familiar with plants like roses and some evergreens which I’ve overwintered in my garage. They go into full dormancy and don’t need light or warm temperatures. From what I read about peppers plants it seems like they need at least some light and temperatures above 45f? So I think pepper plants go into a “semi dormant” stage where they will just grow very slowly because they’re not in optimal conditions. Can anyone explain this?
I just stick mine in a window or in a random room in a random spot and they stay alive. They’ll grow some leaves and I leave them on and then in the spring I repot them, put them outside and they takeoff. I definitely wouldn’t keep mine in the dark even if people do, I definitely wouldn’t.
I live in southern Finland. Less than 6 hours of sunlight in december. Currently the lenght of the day is 8 hours, but this time of the year it’s so cloudy, foggy and often rainy that we rarely see the sun. It can be days or in worst case even weeks that we don’t see the sun. And if the sun shines, it’s not as bright as in the summer, because it travels on such a low arc.
But my oldest chili plant was 5 years old. I didn’t use a grow light every winter. My plants are in the “sunny spot” of my eastward facing living room, but they hardly get any direct sunlight. It’s possible to overwinter them even without a grow light. In that case there isn’t much option but to “keep them in the dark”, because that’s about all we get.
So yeah, chili plants are resilient!
There’s a method to the madness
I cut mine down and put them in the laundry room- one crappy fluorescent ceiling light 24/7. Watered them when I thought about it, maybe every other week, and 3/4 survived. Life finds a way.
I did this last year with a few papers and tomatoes, completely neglected them in my warm (~70F) basement with sporadic and inconsistent watering, no grow lights, no love. Everything died except my Mad Hatter which came back earlier this year and produced hundreds of peppers, it was like a mini tree! It was a cool experiment, too bad I hate Mad Hatters; low heat, bland flavor, chemical aftertaste IMHO 😂😂
Glad I tried it though! Good luck!
My last overwinter died so I’m just gonna keep growing them inside over the winter lol
You don’t keep them in complete darkness. I keep mine in my cool basement and have my grow light come on for 1 hour a day every other day on low. I probably give them a light watering once a month, just enough to keep them alive. Yes they do make it through winter and they produce way more peppers than starting from seed. It’s the way to go in my opinion and if you have the space to do so.
Just bring them inside and put them somewhere that gets lot of daily light you don’t need to cut all the leaves off, peppers will just keep growing.
My pepper plants are finished with year 2 and they are getting cut back and placed in the basement for the winter. Looking forward to year 3. I also nuked the shit out of 3 of them this year with fertilizer and 2 of them bounced back after all 3 dropped all of their leaves. Very resilient.
Works pretty well for me! I have a few plants that are ~3 years old. I’ve lost plants in the winter, but mostly cuz I was REALLY negligent with water a few times (like not watering at all for 2 months). I just prune them pretty aggressively then stick them in the garage to keep them sort of warm and water every few weeks.
Like other’s have said, they’re tough little plants!
What light is that?
I’m glad i don’t have to overwinter my pepper plants.
Mine looked absolutely pathetic last year after being stuffed in the basement with barely any light. I only watered them every few weeks just to keep the soil from bone dry, and somehow they survived!
Once I brought them back up and gave them sunshine, they bounced right back.