1st attempt at Overwintering

10 years ago

This is the first time I have attempted to overwinter peppers. Half of my plants survived and the others not so much. What gives? I have 8 plants next to a window and all the ones on the left side died and the ones on the right side are good. Up stairs I have two of the same varieties isolated from the rest and again the one on the left died and the one on the right is good. I pruned all them back to about the same size originally but as plants started to die I trimmed them back more to try to save them. I can't figure out why the plants on the left side are dead? Any ideas ? From what I can tell the original prunied size , the size of the pot, the variety of pepper, and the amount of light show no correlation. Also, are they dead dead or will they come back ?

Comments (9)

scott123456
Original Author
10 years ago
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scott123456
Original Author
10 years ago
Right
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scott123456
Original Author
10 years ago
Left
scott123456
Original Author
10 years ago
Right
jtight
10 years ago
guessing the right side was more true east than the left. right side more than likely heated up sooner a/ longer throughout the course of the day than the left side.
greenman28 NorCal 7b/8a
10 years ago
That would be my guess, too....the quality of light in the exposure. I keep my overwintered peppers in the same location, since it's tried and true.

Josh
scott123456
Original Author
10 years ago
I know, I am sorry, the pictures are horrible and I don't know why they posted upside down and side ways lol. If you look at the 1st pic the plants are touching each other in the same window I donÃ¢ÂÂt understand. Even if my house was lopsided it would be like a 1 degree difference. Also, I didnÃ¢ÂÂt see any of this with my seedlings in the same windows. Are the plants dead dead or will they come ack? They are crispy. Thanks
greenman28 NorCal 7b/8a
10 years ago
They look dead dead to me....but there's always a chance.
You can do a scratch test. With a finger nail, scratch a bit of the brown trunk. If there's green tissue under the brown, there's still vitality. If not, toss 'em out.

The containers are too large, as well. They might have been fine for the full size plants, but wintering peppers simply don't draw as much moisture....so the roots end up rotting in all that excess. Best, in my opinion, to downsize in the Fall.

Josh
scott123456
Original Author
10 years ago
Thanks Josh, the pruning, root pruning, and downsizing of the pots is what I have read everywhere, and everyone seems to agree on it. That is why I canÃ¢ÂÂt figure out why the ones I left in the large pots and didnÃ¢ÂÂt prune as much did the best. In fact, the Carolina reaper plant, that I didnÃ¢ÂÂt prune at all, is doing the best of all. IÃ¢ÂÂm glad I did my little experiment and didnÃ¢ÂÂt prune them all back and put them in smaller pots, because if I did I wouldnÃ¢ÂÂt have any left. Unfortunately, my experiment left more questions than answers. My conclusion is, all the small pots died, all the large pots on the left side of the same window died, and all the pruned plants on the left side of the widow died. The ones I messed with least are thriving. I just canÃ¢ÂÂt hash out what is a coincidence and what caused my problems. I should have mentioned before that the ones on the left side of the window and right side both have a heating duct.