Chilli plants - how long do they last?

Overwintering is not difficult but you need to watch out for some things. We tend to overwinter a few of the plants so that they continue to fruit through the winter.

From Oct/Nov we keep them indoors in the lounge which we never let got cold. To continue fruiting they also need plenty of light and the south facing end of the lounge has French doors and glass side panels that give us 6'6" x 12' of glass. You don't need that amount but a light area is best.

We grow new ones from seed and also sow them Jan/Feb. We germinate them in a 'seed sprouter' - sold to produce edible sprouts such as bean sprouts and alfalfa. We do that in the kitchen and then pot on and keep them in the lounge until May. They are then put in a heated propagator in the greenhouse that is kept at 70F.

Successful overwintering can depend on the variety but I've found that the ones that produce the smaller chillies do much better.

The things to watch out for if keeping them indoors over winter (and during the year) are fungus gnats (those tiny little black things) and whitefly. You can avoid getting fungus gnats by only watering the plants from the bottom (keep them in plant saucers) and let the top of the soil remain dry. Around Christmas time the plants get a present of new compost by removing the top half inch and putting down some new. There's no need to disturb the plant.

With our over wintering ones we let them continue to fruit and ripen right through to mid-December and then give them a prune and reduce the watering so that they get a rest.

As chillies are usually so easy to grow from seed it's not really necessary to bother overwintering except for fun. To overwinter them they only need to be above 55F but they're unlikely to continue fruiting unless they're above 60F at night and 65F during the day.

I can't recommend ones that are not hot as I only grow hot and extremely hot ones.

Good luck.