My plants don't look anywhere near as good, but I'm going to follow your lead and pot up my peppers today. My in-ground peppers have been in the ground for several weeks now, due to the warm Spring we've had this year.

Josh

You're plants look great!

Thanks! Got the rest of them in the ground today.

The ones pictured above were a bit stressed today in the direct sun. Their location now has quite a bit more direct sunlight than where I had them before. So, we're still hardening off. :-) I just gave them a drink, and the shade reached them a couple hours later and they perked back up. A little sunburn maybe, but, not bad.

Great looking plants, looks like that's the best way to go, starting some from seeds and keeping some overwinters. I will have to give it a go since my fail in 2011.

Seems we all have plants from Jamie's generosity :-) Hugh Thanks!

Mark

Thanks, Mark. Overwintering the chinese varieties is definitely the way to go! Others too, but the slower varieties certainly benefit from having the maturity.

I had a Fatalii plant for 3 years that I planted in the garden and dug up for the Winter (twice). His roots got too big to keep in a small pot so I had to let it go after the 3rd year. I have never had that issue with potted peppers, though. Anyway, I definitely got more pods in the 2-3 years than the first.

Do you just top them or do you also repot? Do you trim the roots? Also do you use the 5-1-1 mix to over winter? I would like to be successful this season with overwintering.

I think it was 2011 season when I last tried I just brought them in and in the spring brought them out. They were fine until I brought them out the new leaves would sprout then stop growing then the plant from the top down turned brown and dried up. So after that I have not tried again.

Any suggestions would be great.

Mark

Very nice indeed Tim. Can't wait to see what the pods look like. Should not be long judging by how healthy they are.

Mark, I have been overwintering since before I heard of 5-1-1, but, these particular plants were overwintered in 5-1-1.

This is typical for what I do:

I top them significantly, trim the roots equally, clean off all the old medium, and put them in fresh medium in pots no larger than 1 gal (not even full). I water them and feed them lightly every few weeks. Usually, just have them lined up in the window, but, have had them under shop lights before (they did better there).

You can trim them regularly if they start to get too out of control. Think bonsai.

In the Spring, treat them like a seedling when hardening off.

The hardest part is to not overwater.

@Jamie - I hope some set and it doesn't drop all the blooms. This is the first flush I believe!

Thanks for the info and pic very helpful indeed. One more question do you cut them back before the season is over to give them some recovery time outside? Or do you get them ready at the end of the season and they go straight indoors? I will be thinking Bonsai all winter long.

Mark

TSheets,your overwintered plants are so nice. I tried overwinter my habaneros none of them survived.

Caelian

@Mark - It depends. I don't really worry about a recovery time. Maybe I should. :-) I just do it when it gets cold, but, some I push a little longer if I am waiting on some pods ripening, and some I cut short if I know I'm not going to get anything more out of them. So, mostly they just come in, but sometimes they spend a little time outside after their pruning. I'd definitely want to bring it in when it started sprouting new leaves, though.

@Caelian - Thanks. I've lost my share of overwinters. I had a few that didn't make it through this past Winter. I don't think they liked their mix or something.

Thanks I will give it a go at the end of the season. Will update as I go along and see what happens.

Mark

Just a question. I have a fairly large habanero and bhut jolokia I overwintered. The bhut is large and tons of blossoms. Being pollinated, and looks healthy in a large pot in the greenhouse. The habanero on the other hand is being pollinated but dropping all of it's blossoms. It's leaves look rather droopy but it could still be adjusting to the extreme hot temps in the greenhouse when it was initially put outside for good. I am not sure what to do with it to get it to keep pollinated blossoms... He is much smaller and maybe 20 blossoms...

Blossom drop is very common and has every imaginable cause (too hot, too cold, too humid, starving, too much nitrogen, too wet, too dry, you name it).

All my peppers are outdoors and I don't try to pollinate anything. I let mother nature take care of that.

The only advise I can offer in this case is be patient. Not what you want to hear, I know. I know I'm an amateur compared to nature, so, my job is to get them started / keep alive over the Winter and then get out of the way.