Harvest Monday - Winter heatwith overwintered peppers

I have written a tonne on overwintering peppers, so I won't bore you with a recap but here is the latest on my current hot pepper darling.


Scotch bonnet saved from grocery store seed. This is its second winter in the house.

You can see the last year's large, lush leaves are drooping and will probably drop though I am getting a new crop of leaves budding. I harvested most of the rest of the peppers today to pickle and dry.


Yummy but a bit much for one meal - this calls for preserving measures.

Aphids are plaguing this plant as they did last year but this year, I have some volunteers keeping their population down.


Rural properties have a lot of (lady)bugs apparently. Not that I'm complaining.

Overwintering peppersThe Interview

Fruiting Scotch Bonnet hot pepper started from seed, saved out of a grocery store pepper, two years ago.

***Curtains open***

I am delighted to see that you have so fully recovered from what must have been a difficult winter.

"The aphids were bad. Sometimes I didn't think I'd make it."

You and me both. I didn't think the occasional soap lather and random aphid squishing was going to be sufficient to lower their populations.

"Sometimes it felt like you were giving up on me."

Oh, you mean sticking you in the north facing window? I had to quarantine you from the other peppers. And there was that time that I transplanted that ladybug onto your stem.

"The cat ate it."

Well, you were a sorry sight but I never did the dreaded pot dump.

"Please, I can't even think of it."

Instead I refreshed your soil with a bit of compost.

"Sometimes you didn't water me for more than a week."

I was trying to dehydrate the aphids...


"Sure."



Aphid ridden pepper.

Well, that's all water under the bridge now. Look at you, flush with gorgeous green leaves and ripening fruit. All that in 4 hours of sun. I'm impressed.

"The other hot peppers are in full sun."

I didn't want to burn your shade grown leaves. Besides, I was curious about how well you would perform and this way. It will be less of a shock when I bring you in for the winter.

"You're keeping me?"

Are you kidding? Look at you.

"So you only keep the good looking ones."

You are a plant. An experiment at that. How would I know that a grocery store bought Scotch Bonnet would produce such a wonderful specimen, tolerant to shade, drought and aphid pressure.

"I don't want to answer."

My point is just Thank you. I'll be enjoying the fruits of your labour and saving more seed.

"At least my children will live on."

This year you will have the honour of sitting in the south facing window. You earned it.

"Those other peppers are a bit spotty. I think I'll stick to my quarantine."

You know, you're right. Maybe it's time I do some thinning.

***Scene***


That's a large watering can for scale.


Read more on Overwintering Hot Peppers or skim the quicky version below:

1. Put in pot of enriched soil at the end of summer and reverse harden off - soften off?
2. Clean off any aphids or other bugs
3. Take in before first frost.
4. Keep in a sunny window and water only when needed.
5. Control soft bodied pests with a diluted soap solution. Or squish
6. They will often die back as days shorten but should recover as days lengthen
7. Repot or replant after last frost.
8. Repeat.

Aphid Massacre - overwintering peppers

Still alive and over the dark hill of December, rolling down into the sunshine of spring:


Scotch bonnet pepper, first year being overwintered. It got attacked by aphids and the cat likes to sit in the pot which explains the sticky fur on its larger leaves. Also notice the new shoots sprouting out of the stem.

I write a lot about overwintering peppers here, but in the meantime, let me introduce you to the method's biggest foe for me: the aphid. My approach to their eradication is three prong. The first two are in the shape of my index finger and thumb squishing them as carefully but thoroughly as I can without damaging the baby leaves. No, I don't find it particularly yucky. Pop, squish, squish... You can wear gloves if you like. The other prong is that when I water, which is infrequently, I put in a bit of liquid soap and coat the leaves. About half an hour later, I wash them off. This is easiest to do in the shower at night so the leaves are dry by the time they see sun again in the morning.


If you look closely, you can see the aphid I am just about to squish, along with many others sucking away on the leaves and stems.

This three prong approach seems to work fairly well for me as I have yet to lose a pepper because of aphid or spider mite infestation. In the summer, the pests are quickly brought under control by beneficials. Only one of my peppers had aphids this year so it is relegated to the basement where it is receiving very sparse sun from a north facing window.

Proof is in the picture - this plant is getting cool, indirect light. The jalapeno beside it did not survive but I understand they are not as amiable to overwintering.

Now, I know I am implying that overwintering peppers is fun and easy (it is) but I have only tried with smaller fruited varieties of both hot and sweet so have no idea what it would be like to try overwintering bell peppers. An interesting alternative is to try to overwinter cuttings instead of the whole plants. Something I would like to try next year.

***

Hot pepper loves talk pests on Gardenweb

Wow, these Gardenweb pepper enthusiasts do some cool propagation tricks. Check out the air layering into plastic beer cups half way down this thread.

Happy green & red holiday

For all of us caught up in the festivities: Happy holidays. Let your bellies be full of food, your heart full of family and friends and your life light.


Here is my four year old 'long red cayenne' Capsicum Annuum. It does very well in its cramped pot. Right now, it is covered in flowers and has produced several crops indoors. The peppers dry very easily, even on the plant such as last year's crop that you can partially see. It's proved an excellent plant for me. Forgive the flashed overexposure as this was a holiday pic taken after dinner and before putting some excited little girls to bed.

Overwintering peppers has proved quite fruitful for me and I hope to encourage you to dig up some of your favourites to get a jump start on the next growing season. This seems to work best on smaller fruited varieties, like habaneros - Capsicum chinense - but as you see I have good luck with hot C. annuum as well.

For more, see The Chile Man