The Chilli Chronicles

Some of you have been following my experiment with overwintering chillies. The three plants that I have been using are now about to start their 4th season. Two seem to be doing well and one is struggling.

As usual, we were away for most of December and early January. The plants are put into our lounge on the floor by the french doors - so they get plenty of light.

Last year the winter was milder and our heating was on quite low but they grew about 6" a month even during the winter.

This winter, was colder, and our heating was set a couple of degrees lower. The plants hardly grew at all but since we have come back (and turned the heating up) two of them have put on about 6". The other looked as if it had died but has to shoots coming from the soil and one is growing very well.

Last year, although we kept pruning them back from November to April we still let them put on a fair amount of growth. I have decided that they were not pruned back enough and got quite leggy through the spring and summer (in the greenhouse). They grew to about 7ft. Although they still gave a very good crop I shall cut them back more this year.

For those of you that didn't see the earlier stages of my experiment but want a peek - here is a link to one of the threads.

http://www.gardenerscorner.co.uk/fo...vergreeni-7694.html?t=7694&highlight=Chillies

There were other threads that other people started that were interesting.

I took these photos today (not very good ones) before preparing them for the new season. I shall clean off the surface of the soil and replace with clean soil. I only water them from the bottom as watering the top of the soil seems to encourage tiny black flies (like vinegar flies). During the month I was away they were only watered twice.

These are the two plants that are doing OK.



You can see that the third plant is quite poorly and the surface soil that needs replacing. Oscar is also examining the plants :hehe:

 

Oooh, glad I came across this. My chilli plants have been cut back (last year) and left in my unheated greenhouse to see if they survive... I'm in Oz at the moment and won't be back for another 3 weeks so it will be interesting to compare overwintering indoors vs unheated greenhouse

 

Loofah, don't get your hopes up, my chilli plants were wiped out in my unheated greenhouse here in Guildford, that was before we got the 18 inches of snow and minus 12 overnight temps. I'll be sowing some more soon My son has kept his on a windowsill indoors and they seem OK - but nowhere near as advanced as Shiney's.

Shiney - don't let Oscar nibble the pods!

 

Loofah, John is correct, it is highly unlikely that your chillies will survive. They need to be kept at a temperature close to 60F and have plenty of light in order to be able to survive successfully.

In their natural environment they are perrenial and evergreen but are still likely to drop a lot of leaves at 60F. This isn't all that important as long as they are then put in a temperature of the mid to upper 60's with plenty of light by March. Doing it that early in the season lets them build up their stems and new leaves so that they are likely to start flowering when they are able to go in the greenhouse.

They still are unlikely to give ripe chillies until August although I was able to pick some in June/July last year. They do, of course, give a very good crop because of the size of the plant but I shall keep the rampant growth cut back more than last year because I want them to branch more - to give more space for the flowers to grow. :gnthb:

John, Oscar will have to take his chances if he decides to nibble them - just like everyone else :hehe:

 

Kristen, did the seeds arrive?

 

Hi mossym,

If you click on the link that I put in my first post here you should see a picture of the plants when I brought them indoors at the begining of Nov. I think that up till then I had picked about 200 chillies from the three plants.

Two weeks later I picked this lot.





Which I guess is about 300 and by the end of the season I think the total came up to nearly 700. So about 200 per plant.

These particular chillies grow to approx a half to one inch long and are much hotter than the Thai Chillies that look similar but longer. I can't remember what variety they are. :(

 

mossym, I transfer my chillies to the greenhouse usually in April. If you have somewhere in the house where you get lots of light (conservatory etc) then they should be OK but if there isn't enough light they will get leggy and not produce chillies. They like to be comfortable - but don't we all? :hehe:

 

Sorry Freddie, the answer is, highly unlikely :(. They don't like to have the temperature drop even down to 50F and once it is in the 40's there is very little chance of survival.

Take them indoors in the winter and it is best to keep them in a room that is lived in and with as much natural light as possible. :thumb:

The first winter indoors we kept them in the utility room on the draining board near a window and the temp would probably not have dropped below the mid to upper 50's. They survived but did not put on any growth at all until March. The next year we kept them in the lounge and they kept growing all winter.