Over winter chilli

Thanks to Shiney I took his advice and lifted a couple of my Chilli plants and am trying to over winter them to then plant back in the greenhouse next season. They were groaning with Chillis when lifted but they were pretty well all green. Now they are red and are being picked to use.Very good they are too
2 slight snags. I have noticed a slight infestation of whitefly and due to the whitefly? the plants are loosing quite a few leaves. I have hardly watered the plants since I lifted them so suppose it could be lack of moisture but as they are in a fairly cold bathroom but good as you can get at this time of the year sun/light wise(south facing) I purposely didn't water much.
What am I best to do now? Pick the remaining Chillis and prune back the plants or just leave as is for a while until nearer Spring. Treat whitefly with some sort of spray (don't really use insecticides unless absolutely have to), anything "organic" which will actually work?!
Even if the plants decide to leg up it was worth lifting them as the fruits have ripened very well. They would never have survived for long enough in my unheated greenhouse had I left them in situ.
I will be growing Chillis c/o Shiney special seed next season and will grow them in big pots so I can then just bring those into the house. I found of the 2 plants I brought inside the 1 I didn't need to dig up (was already in a pot) has done better than the 1 I had to lift out of the soil border in the greenhouse.

 

Great @shiney. Thought it might be cold responsible for leaf drop. It's a spare bathroom and does get a bit chilly at times. I'll pick the rest of the chillis, hose down as you suggest when it's a good day and then prune back. Many thanks. ooking forward to sowing the Chili seeds you kindly sent me and useful advice re them not liking being started in sizeable pots.

 

Here is how I've been over-wintering my own Trinidad Moruga Scorpion chillies for 2016/2017:





I know how to do bonsai but I'm not really going to shape them too much - I just wanted some greenery for my windowsill and so decided to do it this way.

There is an old thread from 2012 about growing bonsai chillies (or bonchi) but the OP never brought it to a satisfactory conclusion.

Anyway, my outdoor chilli plants were dug up and potted last November. The tops were hard pruned and any remaining leaves were pulled off.

The roots were trimmed to fit the small plastic dishes.

I used a heavy soil mix (70% top soil, 20% compost, 10% perlite) to prevent the plants from toppling over - no root wiring necessary.

Then, it was just a matter of conditioning the plants to grow the way I wanted them to.

 

Thanks a lot for sharing! Is it also possible to overwinter tomatoes this way?

 

Yes, it is possible to overwinter tomatoes by applying the bonsai treatment to them but do not strip all of the leaves off.

I would also use a looser soil mix, say, 40:50:10 and keep it moderately moist.

However, this would create a plant with fruit trusses on the side shoots if training a side shoot into a leader fails - this is not what you want for fruit production.

Therefore, take cuttings instead. Keep them small as you may need to keep them indoors for as long as seven months (from October to May in UK conditions).

 

Thanks very much @misterQ and @shiney. Is artificial lighting needed? Or a windowsill is sufficient?

 

Thanks for all the useful advice.
My 2 chilli plants are now minus their good crop of Chillis which I've frozen and had a good spray with water to remove the majority of the whitefly. I'm going to prune them today and useful to see that you can be quite severe.