I did this method at the end of the season last year, and they are coming in so strong already in my grow tent. Thanks for the great video! Only lost one, but 12 made it! Hot sauce this year is going to be amazing.
Wow, thank you so much for following up! Glad that the process worked for you and you had so many plants make it. How are they doing now? You should have a very spicy summer this summer ahead of you with a start like that.
@@JackMorrowT How did the plants/harvest turn out? I’m debating on trying to overwinter some of my plants because I just got such a late start transplanting them out, they’ve been a little stunted and unproductive this summer…
@@jackspepperpatch Yeah this year was great. I started 16 more plants, bringing my total up to 28, which I will overwinter again with the same process. My bell peppers didn't do as well as I had hoped, but all my jalapenos, habaneros, serrano, and cayenne produced well. 200+ cayenne, 150 jalapeno, and 100 serrano. I still have around a month of my growing window to finish them, but I expect to get them all to survive the process.
@@david888a I watered mine twice, if I remember correctly. They were stored in a garage greenhouse tent for 4-5 months, and at around 50/60 degrees, and exposed to limited light.
So glad you showed how to prune and put a lot of emphasis on cleaning the root ball. Nothing worse for a gardener than inviting pests into the home. Thank you
I appreciate it! No problem. Bringing pests inside really is the worst. Once they’re in, there’s all kinds of hiding places for them to stick around in so I’m always super conservative.
Last year I overwintered a few pepper plants. I did not bother with rinsing their roots, simply planted root balls into grow pots with fresh compost mixed with sand and a bit of slow release fertilizer. No problems whatsoever. This year they not only gave me peppers sooner than new peppers, but also produced twice more peppers than last year.
I’ve done it with just water and it worked. I had bell peppers over winter. I’m on my third year with two bell pepper plants. These were originally seeds from organic peppers bought at a grocery store. Soil, etc. are organic and in elevated beds. Never had luck planting bell peppers directly outside at this property until I started this. It works. :)
Zone 7a here/Maryland. We had a 3 gallon pot with three beautiful jalapeño plants growing all Summer long. We picked a ton of peppers . Two weeks ago we brought it into our sunroom/plant room & it’s still growing strong. It’s full of one inch jalapeños & we hope to keep it growing & alive through Winter.
With less hour of sun in winter, the leaves will become yellow. It's best to prune it, after your last harvest. I use to let some plants on pot all year, and all the others plants in my soil garden, zone 9b. I wonder if I fill my beds with horse manure, digging the plant in it, after a pruning, or if I follow the advice of this chanel.
No problem I’m glad you enjoyed it! The timing of uploading it is a little weird, but it took me a while to gather all the footage! And I figured it could be useful for some folks in the southern hemisphere in the meantime
I go to the 3rd node and trim off from there of parts go bad. I also usually wait till i see leaves yellowing and falling before the trim. All my owm opinion. This rocks and anyone watching should do this. Big reward the following year.
Appreciate it! I do the exact same for timing. If it’s a bigger plant sometimes I’ll even go more than 3 nodes up - like 4 or 5 sometimes! Really awesome when you can get a huge plant through the winter
2 inches of sand fixes gnats. They cannot burrow or emerge through the sand. I also use insecticidal soap on my root balls and re-pot soil. Then I hit it with neem oil. I have a small fan blowing, plus small sticky traps that largely do nothing because there aren't any bugs to catch but they're awesome for snaring gnats or spider mites should they find a way into the house. I bottom water the plants. I also have a grow tent, so some of the peppers just get trimmed and repotted. That way they're producing almost all year. i try to have jalapeno all year.
I tried this for the first time last year. I didn't do anything special, and I probably let the plants get exposed to temperatures near or slightly below freezing before I brought them in... and 1 of 3 still survived. I must say it became a very hearty plant and provided a lot of habaneros throughout the season, and began very early too. Oddly enough the original stem completely died and didn't produce new leaves so I thought it was done for, but eventually and entirely new branch came up from the root ball and grew twice as big as my other plants lol. Thanks for the good footage and tips, I'll try a few of them this year for hopefully even better results.
I appreciate it! Glad you had at least one make it last year it really does help with earlier and bigger harvests. And I agree the ones that do make it normally are really strong the following season! I had the same thing happen for the first time this year with a plant coming through its second winter. The whole top died and right before I composted it a new shoot came up from the ground. I’ve got a short of it up on my page!
First time pepper planter. Watched few vids about overwintering, they all lacked that part where and how to overwinter. This really helped me a lot. Simple and clear explenation!
How ive been overwintering my plants for years(even have pics to show it with snow outside my window) is just grab the plant from outside dont cut anything, reduce watering and just leave it be. Bring it out every may-june canada edmonton weather.
Gonna try this out this year. I live in a condo so I can only really grow peppers in raised flower boxes out on my little porch, and every time I've tried to bring them indoors over the winter, aphids have just demolished them. And that sticky nasty residue they leave behind, ugh. I was always afraid of killing the plant, but if the bugs kill them anyway and my alternative is to let them die outside and sprout out new seeds indoors in April, I may as well give it a shot.
I don't prune the top quite as hard as you do, but I've been over wintering peppers for a few years now and the ease and production versus starting from seed is not even comparable. I'm fortunate enough to live in zone 8B, coastal South Carolina. I keep my plants in my garage about a foot from the door. There's enough passive light that they stay alive, enough cold that they stay dormant, although when we have a day of rain in the '60s, I'll drag them out about once a month to make sure they stay watered.
Great climate and area! The head start really does help with production. Last time I was down there I brought some of my peach hot sauce to have on oysters, they were excellent.
I'm glad I came across your video. I have 6 scotch bonnet/habanero plants that have so many green peppers left on them. I'm in Zone 7B so may have some time yet before our frost, but I'm definitely going to try and overwinter them so they can begin producing earlier summer 2024. Such an informative video. Thanks! Going to check out the rest of your videos now.
Same, This will be my first time overwinter rising my pepper plants as well. I keep seeing to wash the roots and soak them and use good soap. I guess. and then to bake my dirt? So there's no little eggs in it. there's a lot to do I guess to get them ready to bring them in the garage..
I grow winter tomatoes in a spare room under LED's. 3 months ago I germinated some medium-sized Campari variety. I now have over 100 tomatoes on 3 plants. Last year I brought in an outside plant and fought spider mites! PS: I now reuse the potting mix safely by pouring boiling water on the old mix and let it dry before reuse then properly fertilize. I grew some great nematodes!!! one year before I started sterilizing the used grow mix.
This was my first year growing peppers. I planted habanero, poblano, and Aleppo in grow bags-it was a successful season-and I plan on adding a few other varieties next year! I will definitely look into overwintering. Thanks for the video!
No problem and glad you had a good first season! Welcome to the addiction! Hope they make it through the winter so that you can build your collection next year.
This is so helpful. My husband has a beloved hot pepper plant he wants to try to overwinter. We're nearing our first frost (zone 5b), so I'm going to do this today. Thank you. ❤
I'm trying over-wintering some Serrano, Jalapeno, and Cayenne peppers this year. I pulled them out of their grow bags, knocked off most of the dirt, then sprayed off the rest with a hose until I had bare roots on my "stumps". I re-potted them in new planting media with fish emulsion compost indoors. They're under plant lights 12 hours a day, and though it's only October, the stumps have already put on a lot of new growth. I look forward to a bumper crop of peppers by Spring, when I'll set them out to produce all Summer. I save the old planting "dirt" after screening out the pine shaving mulch and move a huge tub of it to the garage for the Winter, and compost the pine shavings and chopped plant waste.
I kept one in my garage wich only gets down to around 40°F in the dead of winter. I didn't change the dirt or anything since it was already potted. It worked well and I will definitely try a few more this year
Nice simple explanation. I tried overwintering last year. One of three survived. Bizarrely, I had four out of seven survive just left in the ground. I will be giving it another go this year.
@@jackspepperpatch Portugal. No idea what US zone it would be. I have 50 plants in the ground this year. They were nobbled by sheep so I haven't even had a harvest. It's a lot of plants to bring indoors, lol. I cut them back like in your vid but will only bring a few indoors. I plan to grow fava beans around those left in the ground, for some protection.
I wouldn't cut them back so much 👉👉but do trim. the branches shorter to the KNUCKLE, don't go past the KNUCKLE Some new pet moss, and potting soil, make them really take off> During spring and summer try cloning the cutting. I get about 75% return on the cloning. This will give you a big head start rather than from seeds. Plus you can choose the seeds from the plant, you want to save to plant. I look for plants producing big pods, and more peppers! Those are the ones i clone and save seeds from
Great video! I cut closer to the node to take advantage of the higher concentration of undifferentiated cells around the nodes which speeds healing and leaves less nub to rot/infect. Thank you for the video!
Great video! I had a horrible infestation of fungus gnats the first year I tried this so after that I started using the same method as you of washing as much dirt as possible out of the roots.
My overwintering includes grow lights in the basement, I don't remove all the leaf cover but I do trim down to about two feet in height. I'll get indoor harvests on jalapenos and chilies, not so much on some others.
I'm so glad I found your video, I've been overwintering my potted pepper plants in the last few years with mixed results. My technique so far was like a softer version of yours; I simply repotted the plants into larger pots but left a lot of leaves. Cutting them down seems like much less of a hassle and also means less needed energy for the plant. I will definitely try this! Also, in my experience, success also depends on the variety. My best perennial successes were rocotos, which had huge harvests in the second year!
How big did your overwintered rocoto get? I'm growing them for the first time this year (Desert Cherry Red variety from APS), and the first ones are only just now starting to ripen, with a frost expected tomorrow night. The plants are huge though - about 5.5ft tall and 6ft wide, and have a good number of green fruit on them.
@@memph7610 mine also got huge and had a lot of fruit that ripened very late in the season! I tried to keep them outside for as long a I could (tbh they seemed hardier than most chili plants). Night temperatures just around 0 degrees celsius didn't seem to bother the plant very much. If I remember correctly, I harvested the last batch of green peppers in early November. I live in Zone 8b.
I overwintered a CarolinaReaper from 22 to 23 (pretty similiar to your technic). But in the living room around 15-22 degrees celsius (energy is expensive here today), next to a west oriented window, close to the radiator. worked fine! no neem oil! but i washed the roots clean in the bathtub and i kept some leafs. so..next year i‘ll have a 3y old C.Reaper! :) nice vid! good luck everyone!
Thank you! And I’m glad it worked out! I bet that plant is a tree at year 3! The super hots seem to really take well to this process and bounce back strong
Great that this video ran into me (wasn't looking for it) because I have some pepper plants that have been doing well and temp here are going way down.
Glad it could help! When it hits 50’s consistently at night is normally when mine start to yellow and lose leaves and that’s when I’ll do this process. Best of luck!
I have done this too, peppers are doing great after several years. Only difference is i used hose jet to spray off more outside dirt and then trimmed the root ball further then a soak in neem and water for a few minutes.
The worst fungus gnat explosion I ever had came from a bag of Miracle Grow. You need to dump it into a plastic tub, then pour boiling water over it, and cover for 24 hours.
I got a horrible mix of spider mites and russet mites from a bag of foxfarm ocean soil. Sadly it seems like it can come from anywhere, even the “premium” brands
I had my pepper plants growing in pots. I used the "dunking" method by making a neem oil mix with Castile soap.I made enough to submerge the whole pot and left it there for about 10 minutes. I then sprayed the leaves with Incesticide soap and left that for about another 10 minutes, then hosed them down with water and crossing my fingers!!!
I didn't know they would over winter for years. For years, 🙄 i started them from seeds every year. Then i got smart and clone them. off trimmed branches. That gave me a big head start on them. My Orange Habaneros and Fat Cayenne are 5 years old . They made into pepper trees. I get HUGE HARVEST OF PEPPERS 👍👍 I make dry flakes out of them. 👉👉 I used these flakes and powder on about EVERY THING YUM 👌👌
@@melindaammons5262 Oh heck yes 🔥🔥 i think there even hotter 👉👉 but there a way to use them. Use less makes for less heat and more flavor. Like salsa ect. some time i put to much, and set me on fire 🔥🔥 I do like my stuff hot 👉👉 But i don't like a long burning that keep on going hotter and hotter and hotter 🔥🔥
I did something a little different. Just before the first hard frost, I dug up a couple of tomato and pepper plants that still had unripe fruit. I put them in 5 gallon buckets (didn't even really pot them) I was picking fresh tomatoes and peppers for Christmas. They were slow to ripen. After I got the fruit, I let them die. I might have to try this method.
I also did this at the end of the season last year, I re potted all 7 pepper plants that I have, I cut them all back as in your video and I used new compost, vermiculite, perlite and fish blood and bone. I also put gravel in the bottom of the pots for drainage. I kept them all inside the house over winter. We are now in May 2024, and all of my plants are not showing any sign of life, in fact I think they must be dead.
Oh no! Are the plant stems brown or green? You could always try the scratch test - scratch them with your fingernail near the base and if they’re green inside then they’re alive and just dormant.
@@jackspepperpatch Hi Jack, I have done as you said, I scraped of the bark at the base of the plants, and they were all brown, and a couple of them just pulled out from the compost and the roots just snapped off. I don't know why this happened, but I did notice that over winter, there was some tiny flying insects that looked like gnats. I tried to get rid of them with soapy water, and maybe that also killed the plants. So now I have started to grow some more plants from seed, even though we are now in May. I might be lucky and get one crop. All the best!!!
I may have to try this as I bought a carolina reaper plant that, while growing quite well, has only produced two small peppers. It made plenty of blooms but the stalks kept falling off before the buds could grow into actual peppers.
It sounds like you may have a different problem. If I remember right, bud drop is usually a sign that the plant is under some kind of stress. My red bell grew well but dropped most of its blooms this year because of a mix of thrips and irregular watering.
What kind of temperatures did you have the plant in? Mine typically only drop blossoms when the temperature gets extremely hot. In those times of year I find giving them part shade or just afternoon shade works well to prevent it.
Very informative. I've had plants that I really wanted to keep but they just never made it through the winter. Too late for this year but maybe next year. By the way, that little shovel as you call it is called a trowel. A good day today because we both learned something. Thanks !! --- den in NH.
I brought in a rosemary plant from outside last winter. By February, there were little, tiny grasshoppers that had hatched out, jumping all over my pepper seedlings. . . I had to use yellow sticky traps like a fly swatter to catch each one. I lost count after 120. Agree with the person who said to pour boiling water over the potting mix to kill eggs.
@@jackspepperpatch I have people telling me to go buy some geckos to take care of them because that’s what the cannabis growers do apparently? But we have cats, so that would not work out too well for the geckos.
I attempted this once before. Probably didn't cut things down right. This was helpful. Going to try it once more. I'm in New Hampshire so this year it was a short growing season. Assuming next year is the same, this would greatly help!
Yeah, I've tried this the last couple of years, first year the plant didn't survive the winter, last year the 2 didn't survive the transition back. Fingers crossed I've learned enough this year's might make it.
Great video. I am going to try this. Just a thought... you could mix up your neem solution and dip the root ball into a small bucket of it. Maybe a quart take-out wonton soup container? I think I am going to do that to ensure I don't miss any eggs. Thanks so much for this video!
Yes, very light watering! I normally add water and then wait for it to completely dry out before adding any more. I think last winter I only had to water these 3 or 4 times all winter because they don’t use much at all without any leaves. Hope that helps!
I have overwintered peppers in my garage. I have also left some in the ground but that is risky. Live in a warmer climate than you. I have some crazy 1st year pepper plants over 7 feet tall so I might try this technique this year to keep them going. Of course they will be hacked down to nothing. 😊Sending the video off to my daughter who lives in the ice and snow.
Wow yeah 7 feet in one season you have to try to keep those alive! I bet they get huge. Jealous of the warmer climate, hopefully the outdoor ones make it as well.
My biggest pepper plant didn’t get cut back at all. It just molted the leaves and gave me round after round of peppers and is still going. The one I cut back is a foot tall and I think I got 10 peppers all season off it
This gives me faith in my plants here in Australia, the summer was a little weird and overly wet this year so my plants have been a bit stunted and I still haven't had a harvest. Hopefully I can overwinter as you have shown and I'll have some strong plants for the next season. (This is my first time growing peppers). Some people say that the peppers are less hot each year that you overwinter, have you noticed this at all?
I personally haven’t noticed a difference in the heat level year to year. I did have a few plants that produced smaller peppers in subsequent years, but not sure if that was from the overwintering or just other outside factors. Fingers crossed yours make it through the winter though! Our summer 2022 was a little weird too so some of my plants like the little scotch bonnet I show the steps with got stunted too. That’s one of my favorite parts of overwintering is that it’s like a second chance at a season!
I tried this last winter and brought in around 15 plants. Only 5 survived, and some varieties did better than others. I followed the recommendation to prune off all the leaves, but I found something opposite. After pruning and bringing inside, the ones who managed to regrow their leaves, I got busy and didn't prune them again, and they ended up surviving while the others died. This year I'll be keeping 10-20% of their leaves on and see if that will increase the survival rate. (Zone 3b)
I've overwintered my chillies a few times and I'm always sure to leave at least a couple of leaves on each branch. If you cut everything off completely you risk the plant not being able to get enough energy to stay alive and it'll die.
@@jackspepperpatch-You seem to be scared of bugs! Use your Neem oil and/or insecticidal soap and keeping some leaves. Moreover, if you have these problems regularly your soil needs treated. I’ve never had an issue with aphids or fungus gnats.
Lol some how i only planted jalapenos..i dont eat them much but dang. I got rows of them! I was looking at which three i would try to save just today.. ive always saved a few because the second year they really produce...but what i eat is bell peppers.
Most thorough overwinter pepper instruction video ive seen so far. I was a little overprotective of my still producing scotch bonnet pepper tree and decided to take it indoor with a grow light to mature them when the frost came. They lasted way into January, no new peppers but all the pepper's heat left and they became like sweet peppers and the leaves exuded a sugary film that attracted some tiny insects. I am not sure what did that did that if its the heat/lights. Any idea anyone? I would like to do this again to extend the grow season a couple months but want real hot peppers for the effort.
Question on the neem. I learned I could overwinter my peppers and was thrilled. Who I watched did not clean the root ball. Good news is, so far no bugs. I am in 7b, Texas. When I plant them outside, should I spray the root ball with Neem just in case I may be infecting the In-Ground garden?
Glad you're having no issues with bugs so far! If you've made it this far into the winter with none, then you probably got away with it. I see no reason to clean the roots before putting them back outside into the garden! There will always be bugs outside, so even if anything made it through the winter on the plants it won't be a huge deal.
Hi Jack QUESTION…. How often do you water them? Thank you again for the helpful video. I have overwintered peppers before, but I will try your method this time.
Thank you. I wanted to confirm how the plants start growing back and you displayed the leaves growing on the stem which is happening now on my plants, thank you
Perfect timing. I had seen other videos and yours was the only one that recommended washing off the rootball. Question: do you do infrequent watering of the plants?
Yes! They won’t need much water without the leaves so very infrequent. Only watering when they’ve completely dried out from the last time. The fresh dirt should provide all the nutrients the plant needs through dormancy too so no fertilizer needed until the new leaves start really coming out in the spring.
What temperature do you recommend? My basement will be about 62F for the winter. The garage is about 55-60F currently, but will probably drop to 35-45F in mid-winter which I guess is too cold. Is dim lighting enough for when they're still dormant? In my climate, it's cold (mostly
Excellent video I saved my plants last year, but you went over a lot of steps that I didn’t quite do right last year so thank you from the very helpful info and video
@@jackspepperpatch They Did 😊👍 I put them in the garage for the winter. There is a window that gave them apparently enough sunlight. (I’m in 7a Mississippi) The only pepper that didn’t seem to benefit from it was the plablons for some reason 🤔 all the rest 👍 One of your tips such a simple one I didn’t label them had no clue lmao which one was what 😆🤦♀️ I did make sure to add diatomaceous earth and sprayed once w neem But you did a much better job, especially rinsing the Roots 👍I will do it your way this year cause I said them damn nat bug 😡
Ive watched a lot of channels on chilis, and grown them for about 4 years to good success. However, I find this channel is excellent in terms of nuanced advice. One question I have is about the neem oil and which brand/where to order from? Thanks so much! ❤
I really appreciate it!! I use the Captain Jack’s stuff. You can buy just regular bottle of it, but it’s a much better deal to buy the concentrate and mix up your own from it. I use this one: amzn.to/3BndrWi
@@jackspepperpatchThanks so much!!! I really like how you end up saying "that special plant", I always have what starts as one then oh my so many!!! But this year I am steadfast to only try to overwinter two chilis out of my 30 or so plants to keep it manageable as I also have other plants I bring in for the winter😢😅
Thanks for the information. I had no idea how to do this overwintering process. I love habanero peppers and they are expensive to buy every year. This year they did not produce well -mostly just foliage, so if it dies I have not lost anything.
Habaneros like relatively warm temperatures in my experience, compared to other pepper varieties. If it's 5C at night or 15C during the day or soil temperature of 10C, habaneros and other chinense varieties don't seem to tolerate that as well as bacatum, annuum, pubescens and fruitescens vareities. All peppers would prefer 20C+ during the day and 10C+ at night with 15C+ soil, but those 4 species seem to tolerate the sub-optimal cool temperatures better than chinense varieties. At least, that's what I've found in my part of Canada, where mid summer is around 20-30C during the day and 10-18C at night, but where May 15-June 20 and Sep 1-Oct 10 can get a fair bit of those cooler days. My chinense varieties produced fairly well, but I started them in early March and had them in 0.5-1.5L containers indoors before planting them in early June. My top producer was an orange scotch bonnet that gave me 1kg of ripe fruit, and about 300g of unripe green fruit. My worst producer was a variety called St Croix, where the in-ground plant gave me 115g of ripe and 50g of green peppers, but I like the taste, it's just slow to mature, so I'll try to overwinter it anyways. The one in a container had about double the yield. I also had one overwintered habanada plant in a 20L container, which produced 1.2kg of ripe peppers and 320g unripe/green. That compares to 350g ripe and 60g green for the other habanada pepper I had which was on its first season, so it does seem like overwintering helps a lot. With my large sweet pepper varieties (bell, marconi, shepherd, gypsy), I'll be averaging over 1.5kg per plant, with the top producer giving me 2.2kg of fruit - all of which were ripe by mid September, and with the first ones ripening in late July. By comparison, my sweet peppers that are on their first year will produce about half that per plant.
@@memph7610 Thanks for sharing a plethora of knowledge and experience. My habanero, singular, was just one fruit. Where I live we have cool nights and very hot days, at least in midsummer. It's rated from 6-b to seven. I'm thinking of getting some of those so called Wall of Waters to put around my peppers to extend the season and I can always store them for an early start for my bottle gourds next spring. I live in an apartment complex so I can't give peppers full sun all day long since I have them near the house. Then again, I've read they do better with some shade. I'll try again and maybe I'll wind up deciding it's better to buy them at a famer's market.
@@vernonfrance2974 If you're from Vernon, France, than your climate has a fairly cool growing season, similar to mine. Your mid summer climate is about 1C cooler, but your growing season is longer than mine since Vernon has warmer springs and autumns. I'm in Zone 5 Ontario. Eastern American zone 6-7 has similar winters to northern France, but much hotter summers. An average high of 24C for July and August is quite cool by international standards. Most of the US has an average July high of 30C+, even 35C+ in Texas and 40C+ in parts of the SW like Phoenix. Habaneros should be able to handle a few 35C+ days fine, just need a bit more water on those days. Right now, I've dug up my peppers for overwintering, but will keep the remaining fruits on for a week or two so they can ripen a bit more before I prune them back. Tommorrow night will be cold (-3C, the first frost of the season) but next week will be milder. I think some shade is ok, my top producing orange scotch bonnet had full sun (8 hours) in the first half of the growing season when it was flowering, but then much less (3-4 hours) in the second half when ripening.
@@memph7610 Thanks again for the details. Actually I live near Boise ID now and I use that name which was the name of a friend I had who has passed. We are having an unusually warm fall and a frost is not predicted in the ten day forecast which would bring it up to November 3 whereas the average is close to October 10th as the average first frost date. What you say about these peppers being adapted to much higher heat than we have here in Southern Idaho makes a lot of sense. I got my plant from a Home Depot so I don't know what its origin is. I'm short on inside space but I'm going to try to overwinter, dracenas, false dracenas, bamboo, geraniums, jade plants, amaryllis, aloe vera and more so I need to use up as little space as I can to make all those plants fit in. I sometimes forget that Ontario dips farther south than much of the northern tier of states in the US. With that in mind, I still know that that can produce some fierce winter weather as I am originally from Northern Illinois. Bon chance!
@@vernonfrance2974 Ah okay, your comments make more sense if they're about Boise. It does indeed get quite hot during the summer days there. But chinense peppers with adequate watering and adequate space to send out their roots should still do fine there I think. This spring I forgot to open the greenhouse windows one day and it got to 45-50C for a whole afternoon, which severely damaged several of my annuum peppers, but had no visible negative effect on my chinense (habanada) pepper. Extended periods of 35-40C days with warm nights can cause chinense peppers to have fewer leaves and fruits, but shouldn't do too much harm beyond that. 30-35C days should be fine, especially with
great video! Thanks! I can't tell what time of year (i see some leaves on the ground but you are wearing shorts) or zone. RUclips said you posted this 8 months ago, which would have been March. Can you tell me when it's best to prepare them for winter? I'm guessing late fall? Thanks again! I love my pepper plants ;-)
Appreciate it! I’m in zone 7a. Yes in the fall and timing kind of just depends on the weather. When it starts consistently being in the 50’s at night the plants normally start to get pretty unhappy and leaves will start turning yellow and falling off. That’s when I’ll do it! Took this video last fall but then had to get some of the shots of them budding back out and then with editing time added up to March. Crazy it’s about time to do it all again!
What light schedule do you use when you move them indoors? Do you gradually change it before moving them back out or do you not even bother with lighting schedules?
I have three charapita plants. Still in the ground. Definitely I will try your method. Got your video on time. Thanks for sharing 🙏🏼 I have a one question. Do you water them when you keep inside during the winter time? If yes how often do you water? Thanks again ♥️😊🙏🏼
Pruning isn't really necessary though. My Wraiths just keep going all winter, the plants are full of unripe peppers atm, and lots (i already harvested two times) of new flowers too, last year i was harvesting until februari! They are in containers in a glass veranda all year.
2 questions: -Is this technique applicable to places with scorching summers? What changes do I make to this tutorial to fit in with my situation? -Why not pot with the original soil?
I have never read if you can remove plants from the ground and overwinter them in buckets. We live in one of the rainiest areas of the nation (middle TN) and the peppers were (and are - 9/25/23) producing non-stop.
It's worked pretty well for me the past few years. And funny I'm actually in middle Tn too! Nashville to be more specific. I'm glad your plants are doing well mine were a little slower to start this season but are going crazy now too.
@@jackspepperpatch I compost year round so it's continual additives. My peppers were / are so plentiful I've had to add multiple supports. Corno De Toro, pimento, shishito, corbaci, habanero, Aurora, etc... I'm transplanting two today, pruning and bringing them into the house. LOL I have expensive irrigation and used it for 10 days this summer!
No need to be to fussy,prune ,bunch them all together in one pot you can even trim the roots back to fit them in old compost is fine and as long as they are slightly damp not wet and of course frost free with little light that will do.seperate in spring.
I live in zone 6 and don't have a place in my house to put them in the winter. Do you think they would survive in a shed? I can put a portable greenhouse around them.
@@livingintoday06 frost free is the main issue but even then it may not be enough,some plants require a minimum temperature to tick over until spring , you can only try.
In Sydney the ones I got in ground been there for 3 years and it does get cold probably not cold enough to kill it. Even had hydroponic dwc chilli for 2 years and transfer them to dirt this year and they woke up again
I did this method at the end of the season last year, and they are coming in so strong already in my grow tent. Thanks for the great video! Only lost one, but 12 made it! Hot sauce this year is going to be amazing.
Wow, thank you so much for following up! Glad that the process worked for you and you had so many plants make it. How are they doing now? You should have a very spicy summer this summer ahead of you with a start like that.
@@JackMorrowT How did the plants/harvest turn out? I’m debating on trying to overwinter some of my plants because I just got such a late start transplanting them out, they’ve been a little stunted and unproductive this summer…
Do you water the plants or just let it be till,spring?
@@jackspepperpatch Yeah this year was great. I started 16 more plants, bringing my total up to 28, which I will overwinter again with the same process. My bell peppers didn't do as well as I had hoped, but all my jalapenos, habaneros, serrano, and cayenne produced well. 200+ cayenne, 150 jalapeno, and 100 serrano. I still have around a month of my growing window to finish them, but I expect to get them all to survive the process.
@@david888a I watered mine twice, if I remember correctly. They were stored in a garage greenhouse tent for 4-5 months, and at around 50/60 degrees, and exposed to limited light.
So glad you showed how to prune and put a lot of emphasis on cleaning the root ball. Nothing worse for a gardener than inviting pests into the home. Thank you
I appreciate it! No problem. Bringing pests inside really is the worst. Once they’re in, there’s all kinds of hiding places for them to stick around in so I’m always super conservative.
Neem cake is a great pest preventative and fertilizer when bringing things inside
Last year I overwintered a few pepper plants. I did not bother with rinsing their roots, simply planted root balls into grow pots with fresh compost mixed with sand and a bit of slow release fertilizer. No problems whatsoever. This year they not only gave me peppers sooner than new peppers, but also produced twice more peppers than last year.
Glad that they worked out so well! It really is a huge head start.
I’ve done it with just water and it worked. I had bell peppers over winter. I’m on my third year with two bell pepper plants. These were originally seeds from organic peppers bought at a grocery store. Soil, etc. are organic and in elevated beds. Never had luck planting bell peppers directly outside at this property until I started this. It works. :)
Zone 7a here/Maryland. We had a 3 gallon pot with three beautiful jalapeño plants growing all Summer long. We picked a ton of peppers . Two weeks ago we brought it into our sunroom/plant room & it’s still growing strong. It’s full of one inch jalapeños & we hope to keep it growing & alive through Winter.
With less hour of sun in winter, the leaves will become yellow. It's best to prune it, after your last harvest. I use to let some plants on pot all year, and all the others plants in my soil garden, zone 9b. I wonder if I fill my beds with horse manure, digging the plant in it, after a pruning, or if I follow the advice of this chanel.
OMG! THANK YOU! I'm a pretty knowledgeable gardener, and I had no idea.
I have a pepper plant going on 4, years old. No cutting back-Brought in every year before frost. Peppers year round. Plant is 48 inches tall.
Potted.
Thank you for posting this. I am trying that this year. I tried the cutting back method and was very disappointed.
This will be my first year planting peppers, but I made a reminder for autumn to watch this video when the time comes. Thanks lad!
No problem I’m glad you enjoyed it! The timing of uploading it is a little weird, but it took me a while to gather all the footage! And I figured it could be useful for some folks in the southern hemisphere in the meantime
I go to the 3rd node and trim off from there of parts go bad. I also usually wait till i see leaves yellowing and falling before the trim. All my owm opinion. This rocks and anyone watching should do this. Big reward the following year.
Appreciate it! I do the exact same for timing. If it’s a bigger plant sometimes I’ll even go more than 3 nodes up - like 4 or 5 sometimes! Really awesome when you can get a huge plant through the winter
2 inches of sand fixes gnats. They cannot burrow or emerge through the sand. I also use insecticidal soap on my root balls and re-pot soil. Then I hit it with neem oil.
I have a small fan blowing, plus small sticky traps that largely do nothing because there aren't any bugs to catch but they're awesome for snaring gnats or spider mites should they find a way into the house. I bottom water the plants.
I also have a grow tent, so some of the peppers just get trimmed and repotted. That way they're producing almost all year. i try to have jalapeno all year.
Good tip with the sand! Didn’t know that.
Watering with hydrogen peroxide (1/5) does wonders too. I've tried cinnamon (antifungal/bacterial) but am not too happy with the results.
I tried this for the first time last year. I didn't do anything special, and I probably let the plants get exposed to temperatures near or slightly below freezing before I brought them in... and 1 of 3 still survived. I must say it became a very hearty plant and provided a lot of habaneros throughout the season, and began very early too. Oddly enough the original stem completely died and didn't produce new leaves so I thought it was done for, but eventually and entirely new branch came up from the root ball and grew twice as big as my other plants lol.
Thanks for the good footage and tips, I'll try a few of them this year for hopefully even better results.
I appreciate it! Glad you had at least one make it last year it really does help with earlier and bigger harvests. And I agree the ones that do make it normally are really strong the following season! I had the same thing happen for the first time this year with a plant coming through its second winter. The whole top died and right before I composted it a new shoot came up from the ground. I’ve got a short of it up on my page!
You have a very nice calm voice..i love your videos.
First time pepper planter. Watched few vids about overwintering, they all lacked that part where and how to overwinter.
This really helped me a lot. Simple and clear explenation!
How ive been overwintering my plants for years(even have pics to show it with snow outside my window) is just grab the plant from outside dont cut anything, reduce watering and just leave it be. Bring it out every may-june canada edmonton weather.
do they stay with leaves? with peppers too? i have mine outside and am thinking how to overwinter them.
@@bigbang259I can't imagine it would work in a northern climate without grow lights. It would definitely defoliate.
Keep in cool , dark area or cool, lighted area?
Thanks
Gonna try this out this year. I live in a condo so I can only really grow peppers in raised flower boxes out on my little porch, and every time I've tried to bring them indoors over the winter, aphids have just demolished them. And that sticky nasty residue they leave behind, ugh. I was always afraid of killing the plant, but if the bugs kill them anyway and my alternative is to let them die outside and sprout out new seeds indoors in April, I may as well give it a shot.
I don't prune the top quite as hard as you do, but I've been over wintering peppers for a few years now and the ease and production versus starting from seed is not even comparable.
I'm fortunate enough to live in zone 8B, coastal South Carolina. I keep my plants in my garage about a foot from the door. There's enough passive light that they stay alive, enough cold that they stay dormant, although when we have a day of rain in the '60s, I'll drag them out about once a month to make sure they stay watered.
Great climate and area! The head start really does help with production. Last time I was down there I brought some of my peach hot sauce to have on oysters, they were excellent.
I'm glad I came across your video. I have 6 scotch bonnet/habanero plants that have so many green peppers left on them. I'm in Zone 7B so may have some time yet before our frost, but I'm definitely going to try and overwinter them so they can begin producing earlier summer 2024. Such an informative video. Thanks! Going to check out the rest of your videos now.
No problem! I’m so happy the algorithm did its job and brought you here. Thank you for the support!
Same, This will be my first time overwinter rising my pepper plants as well. I keep seeing to wash the roots and soak them and use good soap. I guess. and then to bake my dirt? So there's no little eggs in it. there's a lot to do I guess to get them ready to bring them in the garage..
I grow winter tomatoes in a spare room under LED's. 3 months ago I germinated some medium-sized Campari variety. I now have over 100 tomatoes on 3 plants. Last year I brought in an outside plant and fought spider mites! PS: I now reuse the potting mix safely by pouring boiling water on the old mix and let it dry before reuse then properly fertilize. I grew some great nematodes!!! one year before I started sterilizing the used grow mix.
What a great video. No bull, just valuable information. Headed outside to try and rescue one right now. Thanks for posting.
This was my first year growing peppers. I planted habanero, poblano, and Aleppo in grow bags-it was a successful season-and I plan on adding a few other varieties next year! I will definitely look into overwintering. Thanks for the video!
No problem and glad you had a good first season! Welcome to the addiction! Hope they make it through the winter so that you can build your collection next year.
This is so helpful. My husband has a beloved hot pepper plant he wants to try to overwinter. We're nearing our first frost (zone 5b), so I'm going to do this today. Thank you. ❤
Good luck! Hope it makes it through the winter let me know how it goes.
I'm trying over-wintering some Serrano, Jalapeno, and Cayenne peppers this year. I pulled them out of their grow bags, knocked off most of the dirt, then sprayed off the rest with a hose until I had bare roots on my "stumps". I re-potted them in new planting media with fish emulsion compost indoors. They're under plant lights 12 hours a day, and though it's only October, the stumps have already put on a lot of new growth. I look forward to a bumper crop of peppers by Spring, when I'll set them out to produce all Summer. I save the old planting "dirt" after screening out the pine shaving mulch and move a huge tub of it to the garage for the Winter, and compost the pine shavings and chopped plant waste.
I kept one in my garage wich only gets down to around 40°F in the dead of winter. I didn't change the dirt or anything since it was already potted. It worked well and I will definitely try a few more this year
Nice! Having a garage makes it super simple. Glad that they made it through.
Nice simple explanation.
I tried overwintering last year. One of three survived.
Bizarrely, I had four out of seven survive just left in the ground. I will be giving it another go this year.
What zone are you in? If they’ll survive in the ground yeah totally just do that! Much less work on your part.
@@jackspepperpatch Portugal. No idea what US zone it would be. I have 50 plants in the ground this year. They were nobbled by sheep so I haven't even had a harvest. It's a lot of plants to bring indoors, lol. I cut them back like in your vid but will only bring a few indoors. I plan to grow fava beans around those left in the ground, for some protection.
Think I will try this this year. Especially my bell and jalapeños.
Hope they make it! If so you should get some early season peppers next summer!
I wouldn't cut them back so much 👉👉but do trim. the branches shorter to the KNUCKLE, don't go past the KNUCKLE Some new pet moss, and potting soil, make them really take off> During spring and summer try cloning the cutting. I get about 75% return on the cloning. This will give you a big head start rather than from seeds. Plus you can choose the seeds from the plant, you want to save to plant. I look for plants producing big pods, and more peppers! Those are the ones i clone and save seeds from
Best how to videos I've seen on this. I'll try it next year.
Appreciate it and best of luck!
Great video! I cut closer to the node to take advantage of the higher concentration of undifferentiated cells around the nodes which speeds healing and leaves less nub to rot/infect. Thank you for the video!
Great video! I had a horrible infestation of fungus gnats the first year I tried this so after that I started using the same method as you of washing as much dirt as possible out of the roots.
They’re the worst! Are you having better luck since rinsing the roots?
My overwintering includes grow lights in the basement, I don't remove all the leaf cover but I do trim down to about two feet in height. I'll get indoor harvests on jalapenos and chilies, not so much on some others.
I'm so glad I found your video, I've been overwintering my potted pepper plants in the last few years with mixed results. My technique so far was like a softer version of yours; I simply repotted the plants into larger pots but left a lot of leaves. Cutting them down seems like much less of a hassle and also means less needed energy for the plant. I will definitely try this!
Also, in my experience, success also depends on the variety. My best perennial successes were rocotos, which had huge harvests in the second year!
How big did your overwintered rocoto get? I'm growing them for the first time this year (Desert Cherry Red variety from APS), and the first ones are only just now starting to ripen, with a frost expected tomorrow night. The plants are huge though - about 5.5ft tall and 6ft wide, and have a good number of green fruit on them.
@@memph7610 mine also got huge and had a lot of fruit that ripened very late in the season! I tried to keep them outside for as long a I could (tbh they seemed hardier than most chili plants). Night temperatures just around 0 degrees celsius didn't seem to bother the plant very much. If I remember correctly, I harvested the last batch of green peppers in early November. I live in Zone 8b.
I overwintered a CarolinaReaper from 22 to 23 (pretty similiar to your technic).
But in the living room around 15-22 degrees celsius (energy is expensive here today),
next to a west oriented window, close to the radiator.
worked fine!
no neem oil! but i washed the roots clean in the bathtub and i kept some leafs.
so..next year i‘ll have a 3y old C.Reaper!
:)
nice vid!
good luck everyone!
How do you use the peppers? I just tried one and it about did me in.
Thank you! And I’m glad it worked out! I bet that plant is a tree at year 3! The super hots seem to really take well to this process and bounce back strong
Great that this video ran into me (wasn't looking for it) because I have some pepper plants that have been doing well and temp here are going way down.
Glad it could help! When it hits 50’s consistently at night is normally when mine start to yellow and lose leaves and that’s when I’ll do this process. Best of luck!
@@jackspepperpatch It's 50's here with 40 expected tonight, hope they make it until tomorrow. Nice video.
I had a great pepper deason! Gonna transplant 3 or more. Thank you for the easy instructions!
No problem! What varieties are you saving for next year?
I'm on my way to the garden right now to try this with one pepper plant 🌶🌿!
For fungus gnats a layer of sand on all potted plants, hydrogen peroxide, and yellow sticky traps worked for me!
All good tips!! How do you apply the hydrogen peroxide?
Diatomaceous earth on top of the soil
@jackspepperpatch whoops. Really late reply. I've done it half n half in water and poured it on top just like watering
I have done this too, peppers are doing great after several years. Only difference is i used hose jet to spray off more outside dirt and then trimmed the root ball further then a soak in neem and water for a few minutes.
Smart move with the hose jet. There’s nothing like a multi year old plant!
The worst fungus gnat explosion I ever had came from a bag of Miracle Grow. You need to dump it into a plastic tub, then pour boiling water over it, and cover for 24 hours.
I got Aphids in my Miracle-Gro Indoor Potting Mix. Not using their stuff anymore.
I got a horrible mix of spider mites and russet mites from a bag of foxfarm ocean soil. Sadly it seems like it can come from anywhere, even the “premium” brands
Have you found a good alternative? I got a dump truck of good local garden soil delivered for my outdoor beds but it’s hard finding good potting soil.
Or just add beneficial nematodes, easy and fortifies the soil with good guys
I had my pepper plants growing in pots. I used the "dunking" method by making a neem oil mix with Castile soap.I made enough to submerge the whole pot and left it there for about 10 minutes. I then sprayed the leaves with Incesticide soap and left that for about another 10 minutes, then hosed them down with water and crossing my fingers!!!
Great video. This will be my first year over wintering my pepper plants. 👍🏻
Good luck!
I live in zone 3a. I will take my peppers inside like you do.
QUESTION: Do you water them through the winter?
I'd love to know the answer to this, too!
Once a month!
In his description he said,
“Only occasional watering when it is completely dry.”
Please do your own research if not sure.
Yes
Because of this video, I am trying 3 to over winter 3 pepper plants for the first time. Very informative. thanks!
No problem, and let me know how it goes!
@@jackspepperpatch One survived out of the 3. To be fair, I pulled them after first frost, so I am lucky any survived at all.
@@MACSGARDENANDNURSURY There are always lessons to learn! Happy one survived!
I used to start my pepper seeds in January an older pepper plant makes a HUGE difference in harvest
I agree! I wish I had room indoors to start that early I’m normally around mid February
What a good idea. Never thought of it myself. Going to give it a go this winter.
Let me know how it goes for you!
Your video just came in...thank you for your teaching I have some small hot pepper plants this year; will try your technique...God bless!
Thank you so much, been looking for this video forever
Glad I could provide it!! Appreciate you
I didn't know they would over winter for years. For years, 🙄 i started them from seeds every year. Then i got smart and clone them. off trimmed branches. That gave me a big head start on them. My Orange Habaneros and Fat Cayenne are 5 years old . They made into pepper trees. I get HUGE HARVEST OF PEPPERS 👍👍 I make dry flakes out of them. 👉👉 I used these flakes and powder on about EVERY THING YUM 👌👌
Do your peppers keep the heat?
@@melindaammons5262 Oh heck yes 🔥🔥 i think there even hotter 👉👉 but there a way to use them. Use less makes for less heat and more flavor. Like salsa ect. some time i put to much, and set me on fire 🔥🔥 I do like my stuff hot 👉👉 But i don't like a long burning that keep on going hotter and hotter and hotter 🔥🔥
Thanks for the video. I am going to try out your ideas on my sweet fryers this year.
I did something a little different. Just before the first hard frost, I dug up a couple of tomato and pepper plants that still had unripe fruit. I put them in 5 gallon buckets (didn't even really pot them) I was picking fresh tomatoes and peppers for Christmas. They were slow to ripen. After I got the fruit, I let them die. I might have to try this method.
Wonderful tips. Thank you for sharing your knowledge. I will be doing this from now on. New to your channel. Thanks again. ~Sammie
Glad you enjoyed! Thanks for the kind words
I had a bell pepper plant for 5 years😮. The second and third season were the best. The stalk hardened like wood. I'm in Sacramento
You keep them inside under light?
Love it when they grow into trees like that!
how do you do that?
I also did this at the end of the season last year, I re potted all 7 pepper plants that I have, I cut them all back as in your video and I used new compost, vermiculite, perlite and fish blood and bone. I also put gravel in the bottom of the pots for drainage. I kept them all inside the house over winter. We are now in May 2024, and all of my plants are not showing any sign of life, in fact I think they must be dead.
Oh no! Are the plant stems brown or green? You could always try the scratch test - scratch them with your fingernail near the base and if they’re green inside then they’re alive and just dormant.
@@jackspepperpatch Hi Jack, I have done as you said, I scraped of the bark at the base of the plants, and they were all brown, and a couple of them just pulled out from the compost and the roots just snapped off. I don't know why this happened, but I did notice that over winter, there was some tiny flying insects that looked like gnats. I tried to get rid of them with soapy water, and maybe that also killed the plants. So now I have started to grow some more plants from seed, even though we are now in May. I might be lucky and get one crop. All the best!!!
What a cool pepper that ripen from top to bottom, mine has always ripend bottom to top or spotted.
It is interesting how some go either way!
I may have to try this as I bought a carolina reaper plant that, while growing quite well, has only produced two small peppers. It made plenty of blooms but the stalks kept falling off before the buds could grow into actual peppers.
It sounds like you may have a different problem. If I remember right, bud drop is usually a sign that the plant is under some kind of stress. My red bell grew well but dropped most of its blooms this year because of a mix of thrips and irregular watering.
@@ajchapeliere Some off my blooms turned yellow and fell off. I either trimmed it too much or too much nutrients.
What kind of temperatures did you have the plant in? Mine typically only drop blossoms when the temperature gets extremely hot. In those times of year I find giving them part shade or just afternoon shade works well to prevent it.
Thank you i have no peppers. The plant is beautiful green no peppers.
Very informative. I've had plants that I really wanted to keep but they just never made it through the winter. Too late for this year but maybe next year. By the way, that little shovel as you call it is called a trowel. A good day today because we both learned something. Thanks !! --- den in NH.
If you try it next year let me know how it goes! Yes the definition of a trowel is “a small handheld shovel” lol
Indeed !! @@jackspepperpatch
I brought in a rosemary plant from outside last winter. By February, there were little, tiny grasshoppers that had hatched out, jumping all over my pepper seedlings. . . I had to use yellow sticky traps like a fly swatter to catch each one. I lost count after 120. Agree with the person who said to pour boiling water over the potting mix to kill eggs.
Yikes! Shows the importance of doing all this meticulous cleaning. That’s a good hack to have though.
@@jackspepperpatch I have people telling me to go buy some geckos to take care of them because that’s what the cannabis growers do apparently? But we have cats, so that would not work out too well for the geckos.
Happy Monday thank you for sharing i try this method i have lots of pepper plants in pots live in Canada 🇨🇦 👍🪴
Great video 👍🏻
I attempted this once before. Probably didn't cut things down right. This was helpful. Going to try it once more. I'm in New Hampshire so this year it was a short growing season. Assuming next year is the same, this would greatly help!
Yeah, the head start can make all the difference!! Best of luck and let me know how it goes.
Did you water them
Yeah, I've tried this the last couple of years, first year the plant didn't survive the winter, last year the 2 didn't survive the transition back.
Fingers crossed I've learned enough this year's might make it.
So I've brought them in and I've noticed they are already growing new leaves. Thoughts on removing those before winter fully sets in?
Great and detailed video! 👊🏻🌶👊🏻
I appreciate it! Crazy that this season has gone by and now it’s time to do it again.
Great video. I am going to try this. Just a thought... you could mix up your neem solution and dip the root ball into a small bucket of it. Maybe a quart take-out wonton soup container? I think I am going to do that to ensure I don't miss any eggs. Thanks so much for this video!
No problem and good idea! That would work as well.
What kind of watering does it need throughout the winter? Would you water like a normal plant or just give it enough so it doesn’t dry out
Yes, very light watering! I normally add water and then wait for it to completely dry out before adding any more. I think last winter I only had to water these 3 or 4 times all winter because they don’t use much at all without any leaves. Hope that helps!
@@jackspepperpatch yes it does! Thank you
I have overwintered peppers in my garage. I have also left some in the ground but that is risky. Live in a warmer climate than you. I have some crazy 1st year pepper plants over 7 feet tall so I might try this technique this year to keep them going. Of course they will be hacked down to nothing. 😊Sending the video off to my daughter who lives in the ice and snow.
Wow yeah 7 feet in one season you have to try to keep those alive! I bet they get huge. Jealous of the warmer climate, hopefully the outdoor ones make it as well.
Thanks a lot for this video. We'll have to do this in about 2 weeks here in Chicago.
My biggest pepper plant didn’t get cut back at all. It just molted the leaves and gave me round after round of peppers and is still going. The one I cut back is a foot tall and I think I got 10 peppers all season off it
What zone are u in
Just got my big ones winterized yesterday. I'm in Texas so the timing is good.
Let me know if they make it! What varieties did you try with?
This gives me faith in my plants here in Australia, the summer was a little weird and overly wet this year so my plants have been a bit stunted and I still haven't had a harvest. Hopefully I can overwinter as you have shown and I'll have some strong plants for the next season. (This is my first time growing peppers). Some people say that the peppers are less hot each year that you overwinter, have you noticed this at all?
I personally haven’t noticed a difference in the heat level year to year. I did have a few plants that produced smaller peppers in subsequent years, but not sure if that was from the overwintering or just other outside factors. Fingers crossed yours make it through the winter though! Our summer 2022 was a little weird too so some of my plants like the little scotch bonnet I show the steps with got stunted too. That’s one of my favorite parts of overwintering is that it’s like a second chance at a season!
Glad I don't need to worry about all that fuss here in Western Australia mate.
Jealous! Love Australia, never been to WA though. What kind of peppers are popular there?
@@jackspepperpatchmostly bell peppers (capsicums)
Great video. Very informative
I tried this last winter and brought in around 15 plants. Only 5 survived, and some varieties did better than others. I followed the recommendation to prune off all the leaves, but I found something opposite. After pruning and bringing inside, the ones who managed to regrow their leaves, I got busy and didn't prune them again, and they ended up surviving while the others died. This year I'll be keeping 10-20% of their leaves on and see if that will increase the survival rate. (Zone 3b)
I've overwintered my chillies a few times and I'm always sure to leave at least a couple of leaves on each branch. If you cut everything off completely you risk the plant not being able to get enough energy to stay alive and it'll die.
Biggest risk with leaving any leaves on is aphids. They can definitely help though if you’ve got the room and light setup
@@jackspepperpatch-You seem to be scared of bugs! Use your Neem oil and/or insecticidal soap and keeping some leaves. Moreover, if you have these problems regularly your soil needs treated. I’ve never had an issue with aphids or fungus gnats.
Lol some how i only planted jalapenos..i dont eat them much but dang. I got rows of them! I was looking at which three i would try to save just today.. ive always saved a few because the second year they really produce...but what i eat is bell peppers.
It's a good idea. I'll try it out. Thank you very much.
You’re welcome, and let me know how it goes!
Most thorough overwinter pepper instruction video ive seen so far. I was a little overprotective of my still producing scotch bonnet pepper tree and decided to take it indoor with a grow light to mature them when the frost came. They lasted way into January, no new peppers but all the pepper's heat left and they became like sweet peppers and the leaves exuded a sugary film that attracted some tiny insects. I am not sure what did that did that if its the heat/lights. Any idea anyone? I would like to do this again to extend the grow season a couple months but want real hot peppers for the effort.
Thank you for great information!!! Very nicely done!
Appreciate it!
Question on the neem. I learned I could overwinter my peppers and was thrilled. Who I watched did not clean the root ball. Good news is, so far no bugs. I am in 7b, Texas. When I plant them outside, should I spray the root ball with Neem just in case I may be infecting the In-Ground garden?
Glad you're having no issues with bugs so far! If you've made it this far into the winter with none, then you probably got away with it. I see no reason to clean the roots before putting them back outside into the garden! There will always be bugs outside, so even if anything made it through the winter on the plants it won't be a huge deal.
Nice vid Jack. Thank you!
Hi Jack
QUESTION…. How often do you water them?
Thank you again for the helpful video. I have overwintered peppers before, but I will try your method this time.
Only when they completely dry out. Normally every 2 weeks or so they will need some.
Thank you. I wanted to confirm how the plants start growing back and you displayed the leaves growing on the stem which is happening now on my plants, thank you
No problem and congrats on your successful overwintering!
Perfect timing. I had seen other videos and yours was the only one that recommended washing off the rootball.
Question: do you do infrequent watering of the plants?
Yes! They won’t need much water without the leaves so very infrequent. Only watering when they’ve completely dried out from the last time. The fresh dirt should provide all the nutrients the plant needs through dormancy too so no fertilizer needed until the new leaves start really coming out in the spring.
What temperature do you recommend? My basement will be about 62F for the winter. The garage is about 55-60F currently, but will probably drop to 35-45F in mid-winter which I guess is too cold. Is dim lighting enough for when they're still dormant? In my climate, it's cold (mostly
Hi Jack, thanks for the great video. Just one question - are you watering the transferred plants during the indoor period? Kindly advice.
Thanks.
Excellent video
I saved my plants last year, but you went over a lot of steps that I didn’t quite do right last year
so thank you from the very helpful info and video
Thank you! Did your plants last year make it? They can be pretty tough.
@@jackspepperpatch
They Did 😊👍 I put them in the garage for the winter. There is a window that gave them apparently enough sunlight. (I’m in 7a Mississippi)
The only pepper that didn’t seem to benefit from it was the plablons for some reason 🤔 all the rest 👍
One of your tips such a simple one I didn’t label them had no clue lmao which one was what 😆🤦♀️
I did make sure to add diatomaceous earth and sprayed once w neem
But you did a much better job, especially rinsing the Roots 👍I will do it your way this year cause I said them damn nat bug 😡
Thanks for sharing such great info.
You are so welcome!
Ive watched a lot of channels on chilis, and grown them for about 4 years to good success. However, I find this channel is excellent in terms of nuanced advice. One question I have is about the neem oil and which brand/where to order from? Thanks so much! ❤
I really appreciate it!! I use the Captain Jack’s stuff. You can buy just regular bottle of it, but it’s a much better deal to buy the concentrate and mix up your own from it. I use this one: amzn.to/3BndrWi
@@jackspepperpatchThanks so much!!! I really like how you end up saying "that special plant", I always have what starts as one then oh my so many!!! But this year I am steadfast to only try to overwinter two chilis out of my 30 or so plants to keep it manageable as I also have other plants I bring in for the winter😢😅
Thanks for the information. I had no idea how to do this overwintering process. I love habanero peppers and they are expensive to buy every year. This year they did not produce well -mostly just foliage, so if it dies I have not lost anything.
Habaneros like relatively warm temperatures in my experience, compared to other pepper varieties. If it's 5C at night or 15C during the day or soil temperature of 10C, habaneros and other chinense varieties don't seem to tolerate that as well as bacatum, annuum, pubescens and fruitescens vareities. All peppers would prefer 20C+ during the day and 10C+ at night with 15C+ soil, but those 4 species seem to tolerate the sub-optimal cool temperatures better than chinense varieties.
At least, that's what I've found in my part of Canada, where mid summer is around 20-30C during the day and 10-18C at night, but where May 15-June 20 and Sep 1-Oct 10 can get a fair bit of those cooler days.
My chinense varieties produced fairly well, but I started them in early March and had them in 0.5-1.5L containers indoors before planting them in early June. My top producer was an orange scotch bonnet that gave me 1kg of ripe fruit, and about 300g of unripe green fruit. My worst producer was a variety called St Croix, where the in-ground plant gave me 115g of ripe and 50g of green peppers, but I like the taste, it's just slow to mature, so I'll try to overwinter it anyways. The one in a container had about double the yield.
I also had one overwintered habanada plant in a 20L container, which produced 1.2kg of ripe peppers and 320g unripe/green. That compares to 350g ripe and 60g green for the other habanada pepper I had which was on its first season, so it does seem like overwintering helps a lot. With my large sweet pepper varieties (bell, marconi, shepherd, gypsy), I'll be averaging over 1.5kg per plant, with the top producer giving me 2.2kg of fruit - all of which were ripe by mid September, and with the first ones ripening in late July. By comparison, my sweet peppers that are on their first year will produce about half that per plant.
@@memph7610 Thanks for sharing a plethora of knowledge and experience. My habanero, singular, was just one fruit. Where I live we have cool nights and very hot days, at least in midsummer. It's rated from 6-b to seven. I'm thinking of getting some of those so called Wall of Waters to put around my peppers to extend the season and I can always store them for an early start for my bottle gourds next spring.
I live in an apartment complex so I can't give peppers full sun all day long since I have them near the house. Then again, I've read they do better with some shade.
I'll try again and maybe I'll wind up deciding it's better to buy them at a famer's market.
@@vernonfrance2974 If you're from Vernon, France, than your climate has a fairly cool growing season, similar to mine. Your mid summer climate is about 1C cooler, but your growing season is longer than mine since Vernon has warmer springs and autumns. I'm in Zone 5 Ontario. Eastern American zone 6-7 has similar winters to northern France, but much hotter summers. An average high of 24C for July and August is quite cool by international standards. Most of the US has an average July high of 30C+, even 35C+ in Texas and 40C+ in parts of the SW like Phoenix. Habaneros should be able to handle a few 35C+ days fine, just need a bit more water on those days. Right now, I've dug up my peppers for overwintering, but will keep the remaining fruits on for a week or two so they can ripen a bit more before I prune them back. Tommorrow night will be cold (-3C, the first frost of the season) but next week will be milder. I think some shade is ok, my top producing orange scotch bonnet had full sun (8 hours) in the first half of the growing season when it was flowering, but then much less (3-4 hours) in the second half when ripening.
@@memph7610 Thanks again for the details. Actually I live near Boise ID now and I use that name which was the name of a friend I had who has passed.
We are having an unusually warm fall and a frost is not predicted in the ten day forecast which would bring it up to November 3 whereas the average is close to October 10th as the average first frost date.
What you say about these peppers being adapted to much higher heat than we have here in Southern Idaho makes a lot of sense.
I got my plant from a Home Depot so I don't know what its origin is. I'm short on inside space but I'm going to try to overwinter, dracenas, false dracenas, bamboo, geraniums, jade plants, amaryllis, aloe vera and more so I need to use up as little space as I can to make all those plants fit in.
I sometimes forget that Ontario dips farther south than much of the northern tier of states in the US. With that in mind, I still know that that can produce some fierce winter weather as I am originally from Northern Illinois.
Bon chance!
@@vernonfrance2974 Ah okay, your comments make more sense if they're about Boise. It does indeed get quite hot during the summer days there. But chinense peppers with adequate watering and adequate space to send out their roots should still do fine there I think. This spring I forgot to open the greenhouse windows one day and it got to 45-50C for a whole afternoon, which severely damaged several of my annuum peppers, but had no visible negative effect on my chinense (habanada) pepper.
Extended periods of 35-40C days with warm nights can cause chinense peppers to have fewer leaves and fruits, but shouldn't do too much harm beyond that. 30-35C days should be fine, especially with
great video! Thanks! I can't tell what time of year (i see some leaves on the ground but you are wearing shorts) or zone. RUclips said you posted this 8 months ago, which would have been March. Can you tell me when it's best to prepare them for winter? I'm guessing late fall? Thanks again! I love my pepper plants ;-)
Appreciate it! I’m in zone 7a. Yes in the fall and timing kind of just depends on the weather. When it starts consistently being in the 50’s at night the plants normally start to get pretty unhappy and leaves will start turning yellow and falling off. That’s when I’ll do it! Took this video last fall but then had to get some of the shots of them budding back out and then with editing time added up to March. Crazy it’s about time to do it all again!
Very informative - can the plants overwinter in a greenhouse?
What light schedule do you use when you move them indoors? Do you gradually change it before moving them back out or do you not even bother with lighting schedules?
To overwinter my pepper plants, I bring them inside in the fall and then in the spring I take them outside. Pretty easy
I have three charapita plants. Still in the ground. Definitely I will try your method.
Got your video on time. Thanks for sharing 🙏🏼
I have a one question. Do you water them when you keep inside during the winter time?
If yes how often do you water?
Thanks again ♥️😊🙏🏼
Pruning isn't really necessary though. My Wraiths just keep going all winter, the plants are full of unripe peppers atm, and lots (i already harvested two times) of new flowers too, last year i was harvesting until februari! They are in containers in a glass veranda all year.
2 questions:
-Is this technique applicable to places with scorching summers? What changes do I make to this tutorial to fit in with my situation?
-Why not pot with the original soil?
I have never read if you can remove plants from the ground and overwinter them in buckets. We live in one of the rainiest areas of the nation (middle TN) and the peppers were (and are - 9/25/23) producing non-stop.
It's worked pretty well for me the past few years. And funny I'm actually in middle Tn too! Nashville to be more specific. I'm glad your plants are doing well mine were a little slower to start this season but are going crazy now too.
@@jackspepperpatch I compost year round so it's continual additives. My peppers were / are so plentiful I've had to add multiple supports. Corno De Toro, pimento, shishito, corbaci, habanero, Aurora, etc... I'm transplanting two today, pruning and bringing them into the house. LOL I have expensive irrigation and used it for 10 days this summer!
The root already there of course it's gonna make more. It doesn't have to spend all that time developing new roots.
No need to be to fussy,prune ,bunch them all together in one pot you can even trim the roots back to fit them in old compost is fine and as long as they are slightly damp not wet and of course frost free with little light that will do.seperate in spring.
I live in zone 6 and don't have a place in my house to put them in the winter. Do you think they would survive in a shed? I can put a portable greenhouse around them.
@@debbiewulfhorst8355 frost is the killer as long as its frost free yes.
That's my question too. No space in my home but I have a huge unheated garage with lots of windows.
@@livingintoday06 frost free is the main issue but even then it may not be enough,some plants require a minimum temperature to tick over until spring , you can only try.
Unheated attached garage should work. I overwinter a lot of other plants that way.
Great information! What temp should it be to keep in the dormant stage? Not sure my basement is cool enough.
In Sydney the ones I got in ground been there for 3 years and it does get cold probably not cold enough to kill it. Even had hydroponic dwc chilli for 2 years and transfer them to dirt this year and they woke up again
Jealous that you can just leave them! Bet those are huge being in ground and 3 years old. What kinds of peppers are popular in Australia?
Thanks for the education
Thanks for sharing!!!
Tried to over winter pepper last year, and it didn't work....but that was with instructions from someone else. Gonna try your method this year.
Fingers crossed it works out for you this year! It’s always worth a shot