I've hung whole Thai chile plants in my garage for a week or so. Most pods colored up nicely. I didn't bother spritzing the bare roots.

Josh

Thanks Josh. No trimming the roots? Maybe it was an overwintering thread I was thinking of. Probably got them mixed up. I might try to buy myself a little more time, and try to talk the Mrs. into letting me keep them inside for a couple of the colder nights. Frost isn't an absolute definite yet, but it looks that way about 20 miles north of me. Don't really want to risk it. Might just drape a sheet over my Bhut plants. I just harvested about 6 gallons of Red Habs and Red Scotch Bonnets, so I've got enough to hold me over, haha! I also picked about 1 1/2 gallons of Red Bhuts, but there's probably 2 more gallons on the plants, almost red.

Thanks again,
Mike

I just pulled the plants out, shook all the dirt off the roots, and hung 'em upside down.

Josh

I've done it three ways:

1. One year I was at a chile-fest run by a fireman south of Indianapolis in late Sept. that had hundreds of plants with unripe peppers on them at the end of the event. With his permission I filled my van with bags of plants I pulled out of the ground and when I arrived home just stuck them roots down in 5 gal. pails filled with water, pulled ripe peppers off them until the first frost in mid-late Oct.

2. Early on in my growing career I didn't know about "snipping" off late buds & fruit and when a frost was upon us my boss allowed me to staple a bunch of plants on the backside of a wall in a warm room and "spritzed" the roots every couple of days yielding ripe peppers into December.

3. I've extended our season up here in New England by buying a 50'L X 10'W poly sheet at HD, laying down a string of incandescent 100W bulbs along the pepper row and covering the row with the poly to form a temporary hoop-house. Of course the lights are left on overnight to keep the frost at bay.

You know what I mean about #3 Mike, we often have a 2-3 day overnight killing frost then 2-3-4 weeks of no frost and this can extend our season. Of course we can't buy incandescent bulbs anymore so I've used floodlights spaced further apart.

Hope this helps!
NECM

This post was edited by northeast_chileman on Sat, Oct 11, 14 at 17:45

Thanks Josh and NECM,
I just looked at the detailed 10 day forecast a minute ago. Supposed to get down to 39* tonight, 43* tomorrow night, then mid to high 50s and low 60s (night temps) all the way to next Sunday night (10/19/14), when it's supposed to get back down to 41*. If it'll be back up into the low 60's this week at night, I think I'm gonna hold off on pulling the plants just yet. I'll probably just bring them inside for a night or two, then see what the forecast says closer to next weekend.

These are the 3 Bhut plants I'm talking about. The one on the left has way more pods that you can't see behind the foliage. I don't know if you can tell from the pic, but most of the pods are SO CLOSE to being red (lots of light orange ones too).

Thanks for the advice guys, even though I'm not pulling them tonight. I'm glad I have the info I needed just in case.

Thanks again,
Mike

Like we always say up here: If you don't like the weather in New England....wait 5 minutes.

Mike, I'm on frost watch here, too. I have a bunch of Lemon Drops plants to pull out. Last night got down to 38. Today was a beautiful sunny day.

Yours are in pots, just pull them into the garage, they'll be fine. We supposedly saw 37 earlier this week and my plants weren't affected, but with 35 predicted for low at 7am tomorrow, I picked most of mine today. Covered the others with sheets - Aji Limon got a sheet AND spun row cover (b/c I don't know what weight it is, salvaged). If they make it through the holiday, looks like this next week will be warm, but rainy. Then the possibility of frost again next weekend. I can never get ripe peppers besides Hinkelhatz - though this year got mini sweets and Tequila Sunrise. Next year I'm starting them early and getting them out in the tunnel early (we decided not to put the plastic on this month, since the tomatoes got late blight. We'll save the plastic until spring).

Beautiful plants!

Good job. I would hate to imagine what would happen if i tried that.

I would do just like Josh said. It seems to me that is the best option.

Alternatively you can pick the pod, string them (Through stem) or spread them on the counter. But hanging the whole plant upside down in a cooler place , is much an easier task. Plus there are chances that the small ones might get some help from the plant.

With small plants like Habanero in a small pot (3 gall, as I have) , keeping it alive a little longer inside is also another option, as it requires little space.

Looks like the frost missed me, so it looks like I bought myself another week. Thanks again, everyone.

Mike

Yeah, they were wrong again, I picked all those peppers for nothing. 43 at 4am, 41 right now even though TWC says it will be 39 at 8am. We'll see. But nowhere near the 35 they predicted.

Oh well, at least I didn't pick all the Alma, Aji Limon, or Hinkelhatz. And still have a dozen sweet pepper plants (put out late June) that are loaded, though they're small even for the minis. Even a couple Tequila Sunrise in that bed.

I'm glad you didn't pull and hang your plants - we've got at least another week of warm weather (if they survive the rain). And they'll probably be wrong about the 38 degree night next weekend - though that could go either way.

Good morning Mike. Glad the frost missed ya! Sorry the wife not the understandable type.. We can understand putting in all that hard work only to pick unripe fruit.

Hoping Mother Nature kind to us New Englanders!

Thread hijack alert.

@ aj, This farm your neighbor? COW POTS 4 IN PACKAGE OF 12

No, but my next-door neighbors know them. I've never used them. I think I've read (on Tomato forum?) that they have the same problems as peat pots with making plants root-bound, wicking if not buried completely, though I guess they do decompose more quickly than peat (which isn't saying much b/c I've had problems with peat). I'd cut the pot to ribbons when planting, and plant deep if I were to use them. But they DO smell! I prefer to just amend my beds with compost or composted manure, and grow my transplants in plastic pots I can sanitize and reuse the following year.

This post was edited by ajsmama on Sun, Oct 12, 14 at 10:08

Thanks NECM,
The trick is to wait until she goes to bed, THEN sneak them inside. That way, she won't even know until 7am!

A wise man once told me: "It's easier to ask for forgiveness, than it is to ask for permission."

Mike

It is good that the freeze/frost missed you, for another week ?

I think that probably your pods will ripe faster hung upside down in the garage than in the cold weather (near freezing) out side. Or it wont make much difference. I will do an experiment today: Cut a branch, bring it inside. and see how the pods on it will do relative to the ones on the plant in the hoop.

If you cut just a branch with some mostly-green pods they will start shriveling before ripening. I've seen it with broken branches.

The forecast is for high 60's to mid-70's as highs this week, lows in the 50's-60's, and now might not get the frost next weekend (too soon to tell but they changed the forecast to 40's instead of 30 as a low). So it was a good thing we escaped the frost this weekend. I just wish I hadn't picked as many peppers as I did b/c now I have to freeze or can them ASAP. Going to go out to uncover the others now.

Any time I've got something in a pot, I'd rather move it inside when possible instead of harvesting, the weather here can change so much from 1 day to the next you never know how long you might be able to extend the season if you can get through a cold night now and then.

It's not over til it's over!

They're predicting 80's on Wed.!

the weather here can change so much from 1 day to the next you never know how long you might be able to extend the season if you can get through a cold night now and then.