I live in Southern Ontario, Canada, zone 6a where winter temperatures go below -20 Celsius (-4 F). A couple of years ago as a newby gardener, I planted a chili pepper plant in a pot in the backyard. At the end of the season, I left the pot outdoors, thinking I'd clean it out the following spring. When spring came, it started to grow new shoots and leaves! I forgot what it was and thought it was some sort of hardy weed. I left it to grow throughout the season and chili peppers appeared! What a surprise! At the end of that season, I decided to bring the plant indoors to overwinter. Sadly, it did not survive. Go figure.
I'm Canada zone 5 and mine died a month before they could've gone outside😮. Like whaaaat?!!!!! I have grow lights now but don't want to deal with gardening to next year. I'm burndt out
Last winter we had cabbage survive as well as some onions, peas, pansies, petunias and Nasturtiums. And one (out of 6) Thai pepper plant in my west window! Bowmanville Ontario. Warmer winter I guess.
My oldest son overwintered 6 pepper plants last winter for the first time. Our Tabasco plant is like a tree! And we had peppers well over a month earlier this year! We have a small house, and I was ready for them to be outside this spring, but we will absolutely do it again!!!
@@lindamueller7592 I`ve been bringing woody cuttings of a really great cherry tomato plant inside for the winter and barely keeping them alive in the indirect light of some herbs and greens and I put them back in the ground in early March in Louisiana. They grow and begin blooming very fast and produce very well. I`m gonna try to use them to produce tomatoes inside this winter and try to learn how to manage their growth properly. The original plant was very tough and survived several frosts and lived outside until after Christmas so I decided to keep it alive and producing year after year to see what happens. After I get a plant restarted in March I root more cuttings from it and the plants continue to set fruit even when it`s in the mid 90s so I really like this plant. I need to remember to collect seeds from it this year just in case. I kept a pepper plant alive for years until an early freeze got it when I was away.
Thank you I’m a 2d year gardner in Nashville and I was getting ready to rip up (and throw away) all my pepper plants. Omg you saved me (and the pepper plants). THANK YOU! ❤
Ohio Zone 6b here. This year I used fabric pots to grow ~15 pepper varieties seedlings in so I can overwinter them in there without needing to dig them up and transplant. The hydrogen peroxide soak should work well with the fabric pots and no need to pull plant out.
I tried last year. But my plants dried out. I was trying not ti water them too much I guess I didn't water enough. I am going to try again this year. QUESTION: another plant that seems to take forever is eggplant. Can it be over wintered like the pepper?
@@joahntanedo-alba7923 I never take in any whole plant that has been outside anymore. And definitely no soil! Instead I take in cuttings from peppers, tomatoes, eggplants etc or grow them from seeds indoors and never take them outside the first summer. First year it’s very limited growth, but after a winter inside they grow very rapidly from March. From one tomato plant I can take several cuttings in April-May and they will grow much faster and give fruit much sooner than the one growing from seeds. After all they are perennials and use the first year to establish a root system. From seeds I hardly get any bell pepper harvest at all. But in the second harvest I get many large peppers when growing outdoors here in chilly Norway
I grew my first biquinho peppers from seed. The plants are huge and loaded but I am in SW Washington, 8b and most won’t ripe before end of season. Over wintering will give me such a huge head start so thank you for this.
I have been doing this in South Australia for years. Plants stay outside and come on again in the spring. I have one that is 7 years old. My banana pepper already has fruit on it and it’s early spring here. I am very lucky with my mild winters
Thank you for clarifying this. I successfully grew peppers for the first time this year and was planning to overwinter some of them but wasn't sure how to do it. I have all of them in grow bags so moving them isn't a problem, but wasn't sure how or when to cut them back. This is very helpful. Last year I used incandescent Christmas lights and wrapped them around my tomato plants, and covered all of that with a well anchored frost blanket. This got me through a good handful of nights right around freezing. I think that might work for peppers too, for those nights around 40F. In southeast Texas we usually get at least one solid freeze and I can just haul them into the garage for that night.
I'm in Ontario Canada. I overwintered one jalapeno for 3 seasons. I was just "winging it" with that plant but it was okay. The 7 pepper plants I have in the garden now, I will overwinter. Thanks for the tips on pruning.
Brian, to the question about a large shade cloth I wanted to write and say, I also follow Growing in the Garden. She lives in Arizona and always has a huge cover at high heat times. Thought you might like to check out her hints for that. Here's hoping for a calf!!❤
Here in southern New Mexico. We have an extremely long growing season. I just take mine out of the ground or pot and put them in my home office for a couple of months and stick 'em back outside in march
(Destin, Florida) I successfully overwintered 9 hot pepper plants last winter for the first time. Also, I overwintered a 12 foot bed with cover for the second time that was about 75% successful. I had tabasco peppers earlier than ever before! So excited!
I'm in northern Alberta. Very short growing season. Doesn't usually warm up until end of May. The rule here is don't put plants in until after the May long weekend. To much chance of frost still. And by the end of August there's a chance of frost. Almost always a hard frost in September. I just brought 2 of my bell peppers in the house. Put them in planters with the intent of wintering them in the house. Knew they wouldn't get enough time outs to produce a harvest. We had a long cold spring. Really buggered up the growing season. Only potatoes and sunflowers did well.
I successfully over wintered a habanaro last year. The thing produced like mad! I will try again this year and add some bells. This was a great video thank you!
I overwintered my eggplant once and used the pot it had been growing in. Waiting til the last minute to bring plants in before our first frost, I was hurried. I knew better, didn't replace or treat the soil, and I regretted it. That was the ONLY time I have ever dealt with fungus gnats in the spring, and it took forever to get rid of them. This year, I will do it the right way with my peppers. I had learned about it from The Pepper Geek.
I cut down to about 2 feet tall (I keep leaf cover) and when I pull the plant I wash the roots down and remove all the soil. They get repotted in an indoor mix in a one gallon pot. I have lights in the basement, so they grow and produce. I harden them off under a shade cloth when it's warm enough. I've gotten peppers through three winters before critters or fallen trees take them out. I just need a proper passive solar greenhouse and then I'll have peppers forever. FOREVER! :P I grew a passion fruit vine in my bedroom last year over the winter. It was 12 feet long when I finally brought it outside.
I am definitely going to try to overwinter my habanada peppers because they take so long to produce. I'm in NC 7b so I might try leaving 1 in ground with frost fabric and see how it does compared to the in house 1. Appreciate you "sacrificing" one of your plants in order to teach us.
Thanks for doing this video. I watched one you did last year on a small plant. I did over winter my peppers last year and was nervous about doing it this year. I feel much better now 😀
This is a new and improved version from an earlier video. The information in both is accurate - this video is excellent. These methods will work. I'm in Zone 5a and I carried over a pepper for the first time ever. I'm looking forward to doing this with the others peppers that I grew this season. GENIUS!
Going to try over wintering this year. I have mine in a poly tunnel and are fruiting well. They are green at present but should start changing soon. The poly tunnel gets very warm and I insulate it with bubble plastic over winter. It helped last year and I got some things moving, slowly in February; it only got down to 40F on average with the bubble plastic. I might take 2 or 3 inside in pots and fleece wrap the rest. The pruning and care tips are what I needed to know. So thanks for the excellent info .
I overwintered a couple of Habanadas last winter. One died and while the other survived died shortly after transplanting it back in the garden. This year I have a couple of ghost pepper in grow bags and will try keeping them over this winter.
Ive tried a few year with no luck, I make it till Feb and then something happens. If at first you dont succeed try again so here I am trying yet again...determined to accomplish this. Saw where someone showed to trim them clear back a bit before transplanting them to help with less stress not sure so trying that with some and others doing them all at the same time. Keep forgetting to grab some indoor potting soil better do that now.
I’m in Auckland New Zealand. I’ve overwintered capsicums and chillies in my unseated greenhouse. Could do it outside, no frost, but waaaay too much rain. Coming into spring now and tiny green shoots emerging from the bare stem.
Im in minnesota. I wish i would of known this earlier. But last year i did bring my peppers in. Miraculously without the pruning and stuff they did come back. I was shocked. This year i will do your method. We have such a short growing season here and peppers never get big. Thanks great easy to understand info
Thank you so and perfect timing for this video. I live in northern California, Bay Area to be exact and am going to try to save my 3 bell pepper 🫑 plants for next year with your method.
I discovered by accident that tomatoes and peppers and eggplants in a mild-winter area will go dormant - that is, when overnight temperatures drop into the forties Fahrenheit they'll drop leaves and look dead, but once the weather warms up enough, they'll leaf out. One of my Serrano chile plants and a couple of shishitos went four years, and all I did was add more raised bed mix to the pot and prune the plant. (I grew most of my plants in small or large pots so as not to lose them to gophers.) Tomatoes would leaf out the next year but rarely produced as well.
Great video! I've seen several while looking to do this for this seasons plants, and yours is the simplest and most I formative one I've seen. Thank you so much and I love your channel.
Hi. Great video. I live in New Hampshire with its cold snowy winters. I have never tried to overwinter my peppers before. My problem is where I should keep them. I have an unheated garage that can occasionally drop into the 30's at night and a heated basement that doesn't get much sunlight. I also have a spot in front of our patio door ( sunny but heated) I'm undecided where to plant them so I think I'll plant a few for each space and see what happens. I look forward to seeing what happens in each location.
I think my big pepper fail last year was keeping saucers under the pots so the soil in the pots was saturated outside all winter in my mild 10a climate. The jalapeno pot was the only one with no saucer and is now 3 years old. So I drilled holes in the saucers, plugged them with corks for the dry months, and will remove the corks for winter. Fingers crossed for the cayennes, aleppos, calabrians, and poblanos. 💚
I overwintered 2 pepper plants last year in Massachusetts. I kept them in a room off of my garage that probably doesn't go below 50F next to a window that gets a few hours of sun. They seemed to stay dormant during that time. I gave them each a small dixie cup of water each week since they appeared to stay dormant. I am really happy with how they came back once it was spring and I could put them, in stronger light, give them more water, and a bit of fertilizer. I will be trying to overwinter them again this year plus one of a new variety I tried this year! I highly recommend doing this!
Here in Raleigh, NC, I overwintered one Datil pepper in a one gallon pot in my garage. Pruned to about a foot tall. Barely watered. Planted it in my bed in spring. Grew beautifully to have a 36” canopy full of flowers and on to fruit.
I followed your over-wintering pepper instructions last year, and it worked great! I'm in 9b CA, so I did all the pruning, but I simply covered my planter with plastic, and it worked! I have a mad hatter, 2 jalapenos, and a serrno. I'd suggest you grow a mad hatter. They are great!
Toronto here! Same latitude as North California. Not the same temps. I tried it last winter and got one plant out of 6. They were in a west window. the plant was huge!
I’ve been trying to do this for years; following all the steps exactly as he explained to do them and every time the plant goes from healthy to dead in 24-48 hours of pruning them.
Yes 2 yrs now I’ve over wintered my peppers I live in Florida 10b. They start giving up a little so I cut them back it works great. I don’t have to bring it inside if course. So our kind of winterizing 😂 love your videos❤
I over winters peppers a couple years ago.. best pepper harvest I ever had that second year but I did get gnats in my sunroom. So didn’t try it again. I want to d9 it this year and try this way!
Excellent presentation, great tone and details. I did this (brought pepper plants in pots indoors over winter, in our cold snowy Canadian winter) and then grew them the next year in the same pots in our greenhouyse, and got good production of bell peppers and jalapenos this way.
This is a great video Brian! You answered every single question I've had about how to handle overwintering my peppers, which sounds suspiciously like how I handle my (always) indoor plants. ;) I will be trying this on a few of my pepper plants and may even try this with one of my tomato plants (I don't have a ton of room at the moment). Hope everything has been going great for you. Thank you so much and take care! :)
I’ve done this for two years now. Followed all your information on the pruning and using indoor potting soil, but haven’t used the hydrogen peroxide method. I just put a layer of sand on the top of my pot to stop any bugs. I keep them in the basement by a large north facing window all winter. I bring them up stairs to a sunnier spot in the spring. I have not tried putting them in ground, I only grow mine in pots.
Thanks. I live in south of Sweden, we already have had a couple of frost nights. But I went right out and checked, my three of my Boldog pepper were still (barely) alive. They are now potted and on rehab in the cellar 😊
I learned about this last year, and brought six pepper plants into my garage (four bell, one yellow bell, and one cayenne). Unfortunately I forgot about them for a while so they didn't get enough water, and I also have them zero light (your instructions are MUCH better than what I followed last year!). Half survived, all bell peppers. This year, those three survivors thrived and produced much more than they did their first year! I plan to do it again this winter, and hopefully at least some of my six cayennes I started from last year's seeds will make it too. I didn't know about the hydrogen peroxide trick. That probably would have been helpful. I had LOTS of bugs in my pots this spring (since they were just in my garage I wasn't too concerned). Hopefully next year's garden starts with loads of mature pepper plants from both my 2023 and 2024 garden. Thanks for this video!
Hello, that was such a great video for me. I had heard that you can over winter pepper plants. I actually brought in one of my pepper plants because i wanted to see if the fruit would ripen under a grow light! I am going to bring in all my pepper plants and see what they do over the winter. I am going to do the same with my indeterminate tomato plant. I had grown both the pepper plants and the tomato plant on a whim from seeds from fruit from the supermarket. They were started late but are producing a lot of fruit. Thank you so much for all your advice. Have a lovely day.
Greetings from Saxony, Germany. I was planing to overwinter my pepperplants from the Greenhouse inside, because we can become winters down to minus 20°C. Many thanks for showing how to cut the plants! Your directions were very clearly and I'm a litte smarter! 😃
Brian... I'm Definitely trying to overwinter Many of my pepper plants this winter.. at least one plant of each type, color, etc.. So...minimum 6 plants. I live zone 5, southern Ontario... Yet again, another challenging season, lol... tho I think there are challenges Every season, lol.. We have had successful small hot peppers harvests in the past. We can get green bell peppers, but have yet to get them to mature into colors, lol.. But.. thus summer.. 😢.. every full moon we have had since April > which has been many times actually.. our night time temps have dropped down to 5°C (40F) lwith every full moon, this summer.. sometimes for a few days.. even in July 😢!.. I've had pepper flowers.. even a few small peppers form.. but zero bell pepper harvest this summer. We have managed to harvest a few chili, cayenne & jalapeño peppers, so we'll get by as we don't use much of them.. But.. I'm hoping to overwinter this summer's abused plants & get better production next summer.. lol... Thanks for the lesson... ❤ a Canadian fan
& happy to report I managed to down-pot 8 pepper plants... 😊 I was pretty sad cutting back the 1st one.. but then the thoughts of a better season next year kicked in & that ever hopefulness even brown thumbed gardeners, like myself, have.. LOL.. & I'm happy to report that my 2nd planting of peas, that I snuck in at the end of Aug, during a cool break between late summer heat waves, lol... they are growing not too badly. The lack of strength in the sun Is definitely evident.. but my few seeds that did get thru the heat waves do have snap peas on them already.. It will be interesting to see what happens with our couple of down to 0C nights we are having. . But I will enjoy a few more fresh peas from my garden this season.. Dear Brian... thanks soooooo much for all the knowledge you share, the encouragement you send us all, and your honesty about feelings & mental health. It's wonderful to have found your channel 2 years ago !! ❤ God bless... ❤a Canadian fan
I didn’t know you could overwinter pepper plants and I’m looking forward to following your excellent tutorial and giving it a try. I live in Ontario, Canada so this should be very interesting. Wish me luck!😊🌶🫑
I'm in NW Louisiana and I started over wintering my peppers a few years ago after watching a video you posted. I kept a Jalapeño for 2 years but that 3rd winter we had a freak snow storm and lost power. I had them in the shed and forgot to go reset my grow lights for about a week. It didn't make it. Not sure if it was from losing power for a day or if it were the grow light issue but after that I started bringing them in my spare bathroom with my other plants lol I'm trying it again this year with my Jalapeño and Tobasco peppers. I also bought mosquito dunks and bits after getting a fungus gnat outbreak this spring. I ran out of seed starting mux/indoor mix and thought I would just grab a little out if my outdoor mix since I only needed about a cup full. BIG mistake that I won't make again. I didn't think I would ever get rid of them. Somehow they got out if a closed room that my seedlings were in and got throughout my house in all of my indoor plants. I was just about ready to throw everything outside. Thank you for another great video!!
I tried last year to overwinter pepper plants.. none survived. I didn't bring them in the house.. left them in a little greenhouse and I'm sure it just got too cold. I have an east facing closed in, no climate control room.. zone 8 GA.. I think that's where they'll be this winter. I do have grow lights if it turns out that it's not enough light for them. We had a hard freeze, in October last year.. I had pipes in my well house burst. Then it warmed back into the 80s for a few weeks. Instead of wax on, wax off.. it's peppers in, peppers out.. and row covers on, row covers off for the winter stuff like broccoli. I use boiling water on all new soils that will be in the house for any time at all.
Last winter i tried this, with dismal results. Vowed to never do it again. But after watching this video i am excited to give it another try. I have identified a lot of mistakes I made (root pruning, using too small containers, over watering and fertilizing, too warm in basement) and am eager to see if I can do better. Thank you for this video.
You’ve convinced me to overwinter a few peppers this winter in my 5b/6a garden. I have about 10 varieties, multiples of each that have been great producers this year. It’s full on fall now and although my peppers still mostly look healthy with fruit I intend to harvest today, I think I have to accept that peppers are done here. It’s mid 40’s-50’s at night and low 60’s to maybe 70ish in the foreseeable future.
Some people in my region (mediterranean) just put them on a greenhouse or even cover them with greenhouse plastic at night, even under a tree (stops the frosts from burning them). This is my first time growing peppers, I will try to overwinter them too.
Thank you for this incredibly informative video. I plan on trying to overwinter my peppers for the first time in a zone 5b in Ontario, Canada. I really appreciated you putting the temperature conversions to Celsius on-screen. Thanks again!
Excellent video. Watched someone's video yesterday about what to do with excess pots. You can cover the outside pot or even overwintered plant with a larger pot for wind/cold protection. I can't believe I never thought of that. Smh.
Thank you. I'll give that a try. Peppers, like tomatoes, seem to just be coming on (most years) when weather is getting chilly. What I've found is pepper seeds come out too late. I plant starts early January then move them up to bigger pots a couple times. Central Oregon has a mild climate and "after last chance of frost" works OK but the plants get even bigger by being kept indoors an extra month until it's getting a bit too warm in my small grow house.
I grew all my peppers in my greenhouse this year. I’m in zone 9b/10a but coastal fog keeps temperatures in mid 70s My peppers love the heat of the greenhouse which is about 90° I’m going to overwinter them in the greenhouse which in winter stays about 50° while outside might dip into the low 40°-high 30° What about repotting second year peppers I started from seed and then potted into 1 gallon pots . Should I up pot to 3 or 5 gallon for next year? They were very happy and prolific in the one gallon this year but want to keep them happy for multiple years 🌱💚❤️🌶️🫑
After watching your video last year I gave this ago. We have a 6ft south facing window in our living room. Our peppers did so well that we were eating fresh peppers throughout the winter. But I did have a big issue with aphids. We have had a very cool summer here in England this year. I found that my peppers were struggling in the poly tunnel so I dug them up mid August and put them back on the window sill where they did much better but I am having to take them outside regularly to wash the aphids off. I was very happy to see this video because we had our first mild frost a few days ago 0°c in the poly tunnel so it is time to prune my peppers again.
I had been overwintering my pepper plant a few years ago. I plant them in smaller pots, and I put them in the windowsill, and I still harvest them. Bell peppers are smaller, but they are still good. Cayenne are still vigorous during winter months as long as they are at the windowsill. Then i transplanted them again in the dirt once the weather warm up..
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I live in Southern Ontario, Canada, zone 6a where winter temperatures go below -20 Celsius (-4 F). A couple of years ago as a newby gardener, I planted a chili pepper plant in a pot in the backyard. At the end of the season, I left the pot outdoors, thinking I'd clean it out the following spring. When spring came, it started to grow new shoots and leaves! I forgot what it was and thought it was some sort of hardy weed. I left it to grow throughout the season and chili peppers appeared! What a surprise! At the end of that season, I decided to bring the plant indoors to overwinter. Sadly, it did not survive. Go figure.
Shoulde left her out in the weather, eh?
I'm Canada zone 5 and mine died a month before they could've gone outside😮. Like whaaaat?!!!!! I have grow lights now but don't want to deal with gardening to next year. I'm burndt out
@@wendyburston3132 Awe, don't give up! Give it another go. We (gardeners) all have failures and disappointments. The successes make it all worthwhile.
@@donhorak9417 thanks for the encouraging. I think I'm just having a bad day.... Or two.... Or 10🥺
Last winter we had cabbage survive as well as some onions, peas, pansies, petunias and Nasturtiums. And one (out of 6) Thai pepper plant in my west window! Bowmanville Ontario. Warmer winter I guess.
My oldest son overwintered 6 pepper plants last winter for the first time. Our Tabasco plant is like a tree! And we had peppers well over a month earlier this year! We have a small house, and I was ready for them to be outside this spring, but we will absolutely do it again!!!
It will keep growing plant with kale or collards and they will all keep growing to trees and look cute. My kale is 8 years old now and papers are 3
how do you take care of the pepper plants
Thank you😊
I overwintered last year, first time. Had an amazing early harvest this year... 😊
Why would you do this when you can simply start peppers inside in December or January?
I knew because the Millenial Gardener did something on it! i’m sooo grateful for both of you . The two of you are my go to garden advisors!
I’m bringing a bag of slow starters in this Winter.
@@lindamueller7592 I`ve been bringing woody cuttings of a really great cherry tomato plant inside for the winter and barely keeping them alive in the indirect light of some herbs and greens and I put them back in the ground in early March in Louisiana. They grow and begin blooming very fast and produce very well. I`m gonna try to use them to produce tomatoes inside this winter and try to learn how to manage their growth properly.
The original plant was very tough and survived several frosts and lived outside until after Christmas so I decided to keep it alive and producing year after year to see what happens. After I get a plant restarted in March I root more cuttings from it and the plants continue to set fruit even when it`s in the mid 90s so I really like this plant. I need to remember to collect seeds from it this year just in case. I kept a pepper plant alive for years until an early freeze got it when I was away.
❤
Thank you I’m a 2d year gardner in Nashville and I was getting ready to rip up (and throw away) all my pepper plants. Omg you saved me (and the pepper plants). THANK YOU! ❤
You will be amazed at the early growth and flowering and fruiting...well worth the effort!
@@donhorak9417Agree!
@speedybna5746 throw them out save your money and time
@@randywells4674 lol. Do what you want. I enjoy the crazy early harvest. To each their own.
Had no clue! Skeptical, but looking forward to trying
Ohio Zone 6b here.
This year I used fabric pots to grow ~15 pepper varieties seedlings in so I can overwinter them in there without needing to dig them up and transplant. The hydrogen peroxide soak should work well with the fabric pots and no need to pull plant out.
I’ve over wintered my bells for two years. Very successful.
I tried last year. But my plants dried out. I was trying not ti water them too much
I guess I didn't water enough. I am going to try again this year.
QUESTION: another plant that seems to take forever is eggplant. Can it be over wintered like the pepper?
@@ChrisKsGardenI have heard eggplant can and I’m planning to try for the first time this year
@@ChrisKsGarden Yes they can
I tried last year but it got infested with aphids.
@@joahntanedo-alba7923
I never take in any whole plant that has been outside anymore.
And definitely no soil!
Instead I take in cuttings from peppers, tomatoes, eggplants etc or grow them from seeds indoors and never take them outside the first summer.
First year it’s very limited growth, but after a winter inside they grow very rapidly from March.
From one tomato plant I can take several cuttings in April-May and they will grow much faster and give fruit much sooner than the one growing from seeds.
After all they are perennials and use the first year to establish a root system.
From seeds I hardly get any bell pepper harvest at all.
But in the second harvest I get many large peppers when growing outdoors here in chilly Norway
I missed the peroxide step last winter 🤦🏻♀️ i had gnats/aphids everywhere! Great video!
I grew my first biquinho peppers from seed. The plants are huge and loaded but I am in SW Washington, 8b and most won’t ripe before end of season. Over wintering will give me such a huge head start so thank you for this.
I never thought of peppers as perennial but I have a greenhouse and plan to bring them in this year. See how it works next year. Thanks😊
I have been doing this in South Australia for years. Plants stay outside and come on again in the spring. I have one that is 7 years old. My banana pepper already has fruit on it and it’s early spring here. I am very lucky with my mild winters
I am just learning gardening. This is my second harvest. So, no, I didn't know. Thank you for letting me know. ❤❤❤
You are such an excellent teacher! You seem to answer all questions as you go! I needed this!
Thank you for clarifying this. I successfully grew peppers for the first time this year and was planning to overwinter some of them but wasn't sure how to do it. I have all of them in grow bags so moving them isn't a problem, but wasn't sure how or when to cut them back. This is very helpful.
Last year I used incandescent Christmas lights and wrapped them around my tomato plants, and covered all of that with a well anchored frost blanket. This got me through a good handful of nights right around freezing. I think that might work for peppers too, for those nights around 40F. In southeast Texas we usually get at least one solid freeze and I can just haul them into the garage for that night.
I'm in Ontario Canada. I overwintered one jalapeno for 3 seasons. I was just "winging it" with that plant but it was okay. The 7 pepper plants I have in the garden now, I will overwinter. Thanks for the tips on pruning.
Always discarded pepper plant...usually with semi-ripe fruit...going to try this now. 😮
Didn't know you could overwinter pepper plants. Thank you! ❤
Brian, to the question about a large shade cloth I wanted to write and say, I also follow Growing in the Garden. She lives in Arizona and always has a huge cover at high heat times. Thought you might like to check out her hints for that. Here's hoping for a calf!!❤
Im back again saying my indoor potting soil is here so Im watching this again so that I can make sure to do Every. Single. Step. exactly as you say!
Here in southern New Mexico. We have an extremely long growing season. I just take mine out of the ground or pot and put them in my home office for a couple of months and stick 'em back outside in march
(Destin, Florida) I successfully overwintered 9 hot pepper plants last winter for the first time. Also, I overwintered a 12 foot bed with cover for the second time that was about 75% successful. I had tabasco peppers earlier than ever before! So excited!
I'm in northern Alberta. Very short growing season. Doesn't usually warm up until end of May. The rule here is don't put plants in until after the May long weekend. To much chance of frost still. And by the end of August there's a chance of frost. Almost always a hard frost in September. I just brought 2 of my bell peppers in the house. Put them in planters with the intent of wintering them in the house. Knew they wouldn't get enough time outs to produce a harvest. We had a long cold spring. Really buggered up the growing season. Only potatoes and sunflowers did well.
I successfully over wintered a habanaro last year. The thing produced like mad! I will try again this year and add some bells. This was a great video thank you!
I overwintered my eggplant once and used the pot it had been growing in. Waiting til the last minute to bring plants in before our first frost, I was hurried. I knew better, didn't replace or treat the soil, and I regretted it. That was the ONLY time I have ever dealt with fungus gnats in the spring, and it took forever to get rid of them. This year, I will do it the right way with my peppers. I had learned about it from The Pepper Geek.
That was me, but I had aphids on 8 pepper plants that I brought indoors
Beautiful pepper 🫑 🌶️ harvest. Yes I knew but I never did it.
I've known about doing this but never did but I'm going to try this this year, thank you for such a great video!
I cut down to about 2 feet tall (I keep leaf cover) and when I pull the plant I wash the roots down and remove all the soil. They get repotted in an indoor mix in a one gallon pot. I have lights in the basement, so they grow and produce. I harden them off under a shade cloth when it's warm enough. I've gotten peppers through three winters before critters or fallen trees take them out. I just need a proper passive solar greenhouse and then I'll have peppers forever. FOREVER! :P
I grew a passion fruit vine in my bedroom last year over the winter. It was 12 feet long when I finally brought it outside.
I am definitely going to try to overwinter my habanada peppers because they take so long to produce. I'm in NC 7b so I might try leaving 1 in ground with frost fabric and see how it does compared to the in house 1. Appreciate you "sacrificing" one of your plants in order to teach us.
Thanks for doing this video. I watched one you did last year on a small plant. I did over winter my peppers last year and was nervous about doing it this year. I feel much better now 😀
I already knew about this, but it’s my first year saving my pepper plants and I appreciate the refresher! 😁
This is a new and improved version from an earlier video. The information in both is accurate - this video is excellent. These methods will work. I'm in Zone 5a and I carried over a pepper for the first time ever. I'm looking forward to doing this with the others peppers that I grew this season. GENIUS!
Going to try over wintering this year. I have mine in a poly tunnel and are fruiting well. They are green at present but should start changing soon. The poly tunnel gets very warm and I insulate it with bubble plastic over winter. It helped last year and I got some things moving, slowly in February; it only got down to 40F on average with the bubble plastic. I might take 2 or 3 inside in pots and fleece wrap the rest. The pruning and care tips are what I needed to know. So thanks for the excellent info .
I overwintered a couple of Habanadas last winter. One died and while the other survived died shortly after transplanting it back in the garden. This year I have a couple of ghost pepper in grow bags and will try keeping them over this winter.
Great tips. I will be doing this with my peppers this year
Ive tried a few year with no luck, I make it till Feb and then something happens. If at first you dont succeed try again so here I am trying yet again...determined to accomplish this. Saw where someone showed to trim them clear back a bit before transplanting them to help with less stress not sure so trying that with some and others doing them all at the same time. Keep forgetting to grab some indoor potting soil better do that now.
Same thing here in London😢 I used new multi purpose compost instead of indoor but didn't get gnats
I’m in Auckland New Zealand. I’ve overwintered capsicums and chillies in my unseated greenhouse. Could do it outside, no frost, but waaaay too much rain. Coming into spring now and tiny green shoots emerging from the bare stem.
Yes i used to over winter my peppers in my basement when i lived in NEPa. It is pretty cool how tough they are
Im in minnesota. I wish i would of known this earlier. But last year i did bring my peppers in. Miraculously without the pruning and stuff they did come back. I was shocked. This year i will do your method. We have such a short growing season here and peppers never get big. Thanks great easy to understand info
Thank you so and perfect timing for this video. I live in northern California, Bay Area to be exact and am going to try to save my 3 bell pepper 🫑 plants for next year with your method.
I discovered by accident that tomatoes and peppers and eggplants in a mild-winter area will go dormant - that is, when overnight temperatures drop into the forties Fahrenheit they'll drop leaves and look dead, but once the weather warms up enough, they'll leaf out. One of my Serrano chile plants and a couple of shishitos went four years, and all I did was add more raised bed mix to the pot and prune the plant. (I grew most of my plants in small or large pots so as not to lose them to gophers.) Tomatoes would leaf out the next year but rarely produced as well.
Great video! I've seen several while looking to do this for this seasons plants, and yours is the simplest and most I formative one I've seen. Thank you so much and I love your channel.
Glad it was helpful!
Hi. Great video. I live in New Hampshire with its cold snowy winters. I have never tried to overwinter my peppers before. My problem is where I should keep them. I have an unheated garage that can occasionally drop into the 30's at night and a heated basement that doesn't get much sunlight. I also have a spot in front of our patio door ( sunny but heated) I'm undecided where to plant them so I think I'll plant a few for each space and see what happens. I look forward to seeing what happens in each location.
I think my big pepper fail last year was keeping saucers under the pots so the soil in the pots was saturated outside all winter in my mild 10a climate. The jalapeno pot was the only one with no saucer and is now 3 years old. So I drilled holes in the saucers, plugged them with corks for the dry months, and will remove the corks for winter. Fingers crossed for the cayennes, aleppos, calabrians, and poblanos. 💚
Great tip for the corks. Ty.
Absolutely! My Marconi is 5 years old this summer and still producing great peppers! 🌶🌶🌶
I overwintered 2 pepper plants last year in Massachusetts. I kept them in a room off of my garage that probably doesn't go below 50F next to a window that gets a few hours of sun. They seemed to stay dormant during that time. I gave them each a small dixie cup of water each week since they appeared to stay dormant. I am really happy with how they came back once it was spring and I could put them, in stronger light, give them more water, and a bit of fertilizer. I will be trying to overwinter them again this year plus one of a new variety I tried this year! I highly recommend doing this!
Thanks so much for sharing this. I have 2 yellow bells that the stinkin deer ate one nite, T hey did leave me the stalks. Take care
Here in Raleigh, NC, I overwintered one Datil pepper in a one gallon pot in my garage. Pruned to about a foot tall. Barely watered. Planted it in my bed in spring. Grew beautifully to have a 36” canopy full of flowers and on to fruit.
Excellent teaching Brian ❤😊 Thank you Brother 😊❤
I followed your over-wintering pepper instructions last year, and it worked great! I'm in 9b CA, so I did all the pruning, but I simply covered my planter with plastic, and it worked! I have a mad hatter, 2 jalapenos, and a serrno. I'd suggest you grow a mad hatter. They are great!
No, I didn't know that and you really got my attention. 🙂
I knew it because you taught me. I have so much gratitude for you for all the knowledge you share.
I learned it from you many years ago😊 Very useful lesson here in cold Norway.
Saw your video for last year. Over wintered 4 plants last year, have lots more for this year.
Toronto here! Same latitude as North California. Not the same temps. I tried it last winter and got one plant out of 6. They were in a west window. the plant was huge!
Love these educational videos opposed to the click-bait-drama-fied videos. Thank you for getting back to these!
I’ve never tried this before, didn’t even know this was a possibility! But this year sounds like a great opportunity to try! Thank you!
I’ve been trying to do this for years; following all the steps exactly as he explained to do them and every time the plant goes from healthy to dead in 24-48 hours of pruning them.
Saved for future use! Great info! Thank you!
I live in France & overwintered my peppers including a couple of chilli peppers, Iast year. I will try again this year using your advice...merci.
I needed this! I'm almost to my 2nd year gardening and it took my peppers forever last year.
Question, my pepper stalks aren't green, they're brown. Did i do something wrong this year??
I never knew! Thank you! Zone 6, there is hope for us 🎉
Yes 2 yrs now I’ve over wintered my peppers I live in Florida 10b. They start giving up a little so I cut them back it works great. I don’t have to bring it inside if course. So our kind of winterizing 😂 love your videos❤
I over winters peppers a couple years ago.. best pepper harvest I ever had that second year but I did get gnats in my sunroom. So didn’t try it again. I want to d9 it this year and try this way!
Excellent presentation, great tone and details. I did this (brought pepper plants in pots indoors over winter, in our cold snowy Canadian winter) and then grew them the next year in the same pots in our greenhouyse, and got good production of bell peppers and jalapenos this way.
This is a great video Brian! You answered every single question I've had about how to handle overwintering my peppers, which sounds suspiciously like how I handle my (always) indoor plants. ;) I will be trying this on a few of my pepper plants and may even try this with one of my tomato plants (I don't have a ton of room at the moment). Hope everything has been going great for you. Thank you so much and take care! :)
I’ve done this for two years now. Followed all your information on the pruning and using indoor potting soil, but haven’t used the hydrogen peroxide method. I just put a layer of sand on the top of my pot to stop any bugs.
I keep them in the basement by a large north facing window all winter. I bring them up stairs to a sunnier spot in the spring. I have not tried putting them in ground, I only grow mine in pots.
Thanks. I live in south of Sweden, we already have had a couple of frost nights. But I went right out and checked, my three of my Boldog pepper were still (barely) alive. They are now potted and on rehab in the cellar 😊
Excellent! This is great news. Thank you.
I learned about this last year, and brought six pepper plants into my garage (four bell, one yellow bell, and one cayenne). Unfortunately I forgot about them for a while so they didn't get enough water, and I also have them zero light (your instructions are MUCH better than what I followed last year!). Half survived, all bell peppers.
This year, those three survivors thrived and produced much more than they did their first year!
I plan to do it again this winter, and hopefully at least some of my six cayennes I started from last year's seeds will make it too.
I didn't know about the hydrogen peroxide trick. That probably would have been helpful. I had LOTS of bugs in my pots this spring (since they were just in my garage I wasn't too concerned). Hopefully next year's garden starts with loads of mature pepper plants from both my 2023 and 2024 garden.
Thanks for this video!
Hello, that was such a great video for me. I had heard that you can over winter pepper plants. I actually brought in one of my pepper plants because i wanted to see if the fruit would ripen under a grow light! I am going to bring in all my pepper plants and see what they do over the winter. I am going to do the same with my indeterminate tomato plant. I had grown both the pepper plants and the tomato plant on a whim from seeds from fruit from the supermarket. They were started late but are producing a lot of fruit. Thank you so much for all your advice. Have a lovely day.
Greetings from Saxony, Germany. I was planing to overwinter my pepperplants from the Greenhouse inside, because we can become winters down to minus 20°C. Many thanks for showing how to cut the plants! Your directions were very clearly and I'm a litte smarter! 😃
Brian... I'm Definitely trying to overwinter Many of my pepper plants this winter.. at least one plant of each type, color, etc..
So...minimum 6 plants.
I live zone 5, southern Ontario...
Yet again, another challenging season, lol... tho I think there are challenges Every season, lol..
We have had successful small hot peppers harvests in the past. We can get green bell peppers, but have yet to get them to mature into colors, lol..
But.. thus summer.. 😢.. every full moon we have had since April > which has been many times actually.. our night time temps have dropped down to 5°C (40F) lwith every full moon, this summer.. sometimes for a few days.. even in July 😢!..
I've had pepper flowers.. even a few small peppers form.. but zero bell pepper harvest this summer.
We have managed to harvest a few chili, cayenne & jalapeño peppers, so we'll get by as we don't use much of them..
But.. I'm hoping to overwinter this summer's abused plants & get better production next summer.. lol...
Thanks for the lesson...
❤ a Canadian fan
& happy to report I managed to down-pot 8 pepper plants... 😊
I was pretty sad cutting back the 1st one.. but then the thoughts of a better season next year kicked in & that ever hopefulness even brown thumbed gardeners, like myself, have.. LOL..
& I'm happy to report that my 2nd planting of peas, that I snuck in at the end of Aug, during a cool break between late summer heat waves, lol... they are growing not too badly. The lack of strength in the sun Is definitely evident.. but my few seeds that did get thru the heat waves do have snap peas on them already..
It will be interesting to see what happens with our couple of down to 0C nights we are having. .
But I will enjoy a few more fresh peas from my garden this season..
Dear Brian... thanks soooooo much for all the knowledge you share, the encouragement you send us all, and your honesty about feelings & mental health. It's wonderful to have found your channel 2 years ago !! ❤
God bless...
❤a Canadian fan
In AZ - Chiltepin peppers will produce for 20 years. I grew mine from seed and it's now 3 years old.
Thanks! Going to be trying this out this winter in Canada 🍁 zone 7a
The 3 I did nothing to and left in the ground survived and did great this year. The 2 I pruned both died. I'm in 10a
I didn’t know you could overwinter pepper plants and I’m looking forward to following your excellent tutorial and giving it a try. I live in Ontario, Canada so this should be very interesting. Wish me luck!😊🌶🫑
I'm in NW Louisiana and I started over wintering my peppers a few years ago after watching a video you posted. I kept a Jalapeño for 2 years but that 3rd winter we had a freak snow storm and lost power. I had them in the shed and forgot to go reset my grow lights for about a week. It didn't make it. Not sure if it was from losing power for a day or if it were the grow light issue but after that I started bringing them in my spare bathroom with my other plants lol I'm trying it again this year with my Jalapeño and Tobasco peppers.
I also bought mosquito dunks and bits after getting a fungus gnat outbreak this spring. I ran out of seed starting mux/indoor mix and thought I would just grab a little out if my outdoor mix since I only needed about a cup full. BIG mistake that I won't make again. I didn't think I would ever get rid of them. Somehow they got out if a closed room that my seedlings were in and got throughout my house in all of my indoor plants. I was just about ready to throw everything outside.
Thank you for another great video!!
I tried last year to overwinter pepper plants.. none survived.
I didn't bring them in the house.. left them in a little greenhouse and I'm sure it just got too cold.
I have an east facing closed in, no climate control room.. zone 8 GA.. I think that's where they'll be this winter. I do have grow lights if it turns out that it's not enough light for them.
We had a hard freeze, in October last year.. I had pipes in my well house burst.
Then it warmed back into the 80s for a few weeks.
Instead of wax on, wax off.. it's peppers in, peppers out.. and row covers on, row covers off for the winter stuff like broccoli.
I use boiling water on all new soils that will be in the house for any time at all.
Last winter i tried this, with dismal results. Vowed to never do it again. But after watching this video i am excited to give it another try. I have identified a lot of mistakes I made (root pruning, using too small containers, over watering and fertilizing, too warm in basement) and am eager to see if I can do better. Thank you for this video.
I am positive you can!
I was successful last year with overwintering! Ivwas ecstatic! I'm in zone 6. I'm going to try it again. Thank you Brian for the tips!
I overwintered peppers last year for the first time. It worked great!
You’ve convinced me to overwinter a few peppers this winter in my 5b/6a garden. I have about 10 varieties, multiples of each that have been great producers this year. It’s full on fall now and although my peppers still mostly look healthy with fruit I intend to harvest today, I think I have to accept that peppers are done here. It’s mid 40’s-50’s at night and low 60’s to maybe 70ish in the foreseeable future.
Three of my peppers turned brown and they recovered perfectly in the spring! One of them gave me a lot of peppers, probably the most.
What about the plants that are 6 to 7 ft tall? I have some pepper plants over 5 feet tall
Knew I could overwinter peppers, have never done it. Will try it this year; thanks for the peptalk Brian!!!
Great tips Thanks! Will try my hot peppers here in zone 6A in Canada!🤞
I knew that you could overwinter peppers, but I didn't think it could be done here. I'm going to try this with a pepper plant this year. Thanks!!
I’m gonna try this with my peppercini peppers
Some people in my region (mediterranean) just put them on a greenhouse or even cover them with greenhouse plastic at night, even under a tree (stops the frosts from burning them). This is my first time growing peppers, I will try to overwinter them too.
Thank you for this incredibly informative video. I plan on trying to overwinter my peppers for the first time in a zone 5b in Ontario, Canada. I really appreciated you putting the temperature conversions to Celsius on-screen. Thanks again!
This is all good advice that I've done in the past. I use Mosquito dunks. This year I'm trying to root clippings instead of overwintering.
Excellent video. Watched someone's video yesterday about what to do with excess pots. You can cover the outside pot or even overwintered plant with a larger pot for wind/cold protection. I can't believe I never thought of that. Smh.
Thank you. I'll give that a try. Peppers, like tomatoes, seem to just be coming on (most years) when weather is getting chilly. What I've found is pepper seeds come out too late. I plant starts early January then move them up to bigger pots a couple times. Central Oregon has a mild climate and "after last chance of frost" works OK but the plants get even bigger by being kept indoors an extra month until it's getting a bit too warm in my small grow house.
Fantastic info, deff going to do this!! Stay tuned ✨
This will be the first year I will try this. Great video! Very informative and clear. I think I can do this. Thank you from Colorado!
I grew all my peppers in my greenhouse this year. I’m in zone 9b/10a but coastal fog keeps temperatures in mid 70s My peppers love the heat of the greenhouse which is about 90° I’m going to overwinter them in the greenhouse which in winter stays about 50° while outside might dip into the low 40°-high 30°
What about repotting second year peppers I started from seed and then potted into 1 gallon pots . Should I up pot to 3 or 5 gallon for next year? They were very happy and prolific in the one gallon this year but want to keep them happy for multiple years 🌱💚❤️🌶️🫑
I'm in Colorado & I'm gonna try this with my anaheim peppers.
After watching your video last year I gave this ago. We have a 6ft south facing window in our living room. Our peppers did so well that we were eating fresh peppers throughout the winter. But I did have a big issue with aphids. We have had a very cool summer here in England this year. I found that my peppers were struggling in the poly tunnel so I dug them up mid August and put them back on the window sill where they did much better but I am having to take them outside regularly to wash the aphids off. I was very happy to see this video because we had our first mild frost a few days ago 0°c in the poly tunnel so it is time to prune my peppers again.
I had been overwintering my pepper plant a few years ago. I plant them in smaller pots, and I put them in the windowsill, and I still harvest them. Bell peppers are smaller, but they are still good. Cayenne are still vigorous during winter months as long as they are at the windowsill. Then i transplanted them again in the dirt once the weather warm up..
Good to see you looking good
Great video my problem is where do I put the outdoor plants in the house. My indoor plants have the sun.