I thought it would be good to try some other container-peppers next summer, so bought some seeds from Pepper Joe's plus bought some "Thai bird chilis" from a local supermarket and selected the most ripe chilis to dry and harvest the seeds. I wanted to test what might grow well in containers in cool conditions.

My indoor growing spot is two 4-ft. shop lights in the basement (2 fixtures, 2 tubes per fixture, one cool-white, one warm-white), on for 16 hrs per day. This is all covered with a white sheet to trap heat from the lights. Right now the temp in the covered growing area is about 75F during the day and low 60s at night. As winter sets in the day temp should remain about the same, but the night temp will drop into the mid to high 50's. Here's a pic of the covered set-up:

P.Joe's seed packs contain about 10 seeds per pack and I really bought them for next outdoor season, so was only willing to commit 2 or 3 seeds to test under grow lights this winter.

--My few seeds of "Firecracker Chile" didn't germinate, which is too bad since they are said to be good for containers so would have been good to evaluate.

--The "Charleston Hot Pepper", said to be 15" tall with heavy yields, so also a good container option, had one plant germinate but it was sickly and soon developed mottled brown leaves and was discarded.

That leaves me with just 3 hot pepper varieties. The supermarket "Thai bird chilis", were planted Sep. 8, and had 90% germination, with strong growth. They grow so strongly that I have to clip them frequently to try to force them to bush out. Maybe I can force them to be a bushy indoor plant, but I think they want to be a very tall pepper, so probably not a great choice for indoor or container gardening. Too bad, as they have a nice taste and a fierce heat. Here's how they look on Nov. 12, 65 days after planting (and after numerous clippings):

"Thai Sun peppers" -- Planted Sep. 28, the seed was so tiny that I didn't hold out much hope, but 2 out of 2 germinated. They grew slowly at first, with thin stems, and I sprayed one with a fungicide when it looked like "damping-off" disease might kill the main stem. Right now I think these have the most promise -- they branched strongly without any pinching needed to promote branching, and they are now putting out flower buds, which no other variety is doing. And this is just 45 days after planting the seeds:

Close-up of the buds:

The other variety I still have is "Tobasco". I have two plants, one rather sickly that might be composted soon, and another with more vigour that might be worth keeping:

If I can ask a question... what causes the mottled appearance (and brown spots in more advanced cases) on pepper leaves? I saw this on the Charleston Hot peppers before I ended up tossing them. And it is visible on the Tobasco peppers now:

Is this a disease?... viral, bacterial, fungal? Is it a nutient issue? Is it a cold-intolerance issue? An insect issue (I don't see any insects, even under a 10X loupe). An insecticide issue? (I treat each potted plant with fungus-gnat dust because I have issues with those bugs).

Anyhow, I'll update things in a month or so to let people know how my little indoor garden is doing.

Don't over water, use good draining soil and don't use too much fertilizer. Growing indoors seems to allow the most maladies to affect peppers. They really seem happier outside. But like you, it takes a good head start to get a fully matured and producing plant up north.

JS101: You are certainly into the hot ones!

RE: your questions: I have 2 plants of 3 varieties - "Thai Sun", "Tobasco", and some very hot pepper from a local grocery store that I ripened and collected seeds from - "Thai bird pepper" for lack of an official name.

Humidity isn't usually an issue here in winter because the outside air is cold, so when the furnace brings air inside and heats it to room temperature the relative humidity plummets. However, we bought a new furnace last spring, with the "humidifier option" precisely because the winter air is so dry inside, so you are right, I should watch the humidity this year, especially since there is no air circulation under my enclosed grow lights. On the positive side, we are getting a shot of winter weather here, it is -15 C (5 F) outside right now, and I measured the humidity tonight as 61% relative humidity upstairs, and 56% under my basement grow lights, using the same sensor. So I think humidity is OK now, but something I should monitor as the plants get bigger and use more moisture.

BTW, the sickly mottled plant looks better since my last post - not sure if this is due to cutting back seriously on the watering or from giving an extra shot of fertilizer, but I'm thinking watering might be the main reason.

Oh, and my two Thai Sun plants have each had their first blossoms now, one yesterday (Sunday) and one today!

My light cycle right now is 16 hours. That seems to work OK for most plants I've grown under lights, but it's interesting to know that 18 hours has worked well for you. I'm not sure if there is an upper limit... plants above the Arctic Circle get 24 hours of light in summer and they grow fine, but they aren't peppers.

Esox07, yes the enclosed grow area definitely poses some risks, but it's a trade off of evils. It is old bedsheets that enclose the lights and they don't seem to trap noticeable moisture (humidity is 52% under the lights right now). The white sheets help reflect more light onto the plants, plus they raise the temperature (my main reason for covering the space). It is 75 degrees by day at the plant-table surface (presumably a bit warmer by the tops of the plants), but only 65 degrees outside the covered grow area now. Frost penetrates the ground up to 4 feet deep here in winter, so it's only going to get colder in the basement over the next months. I plan to trim the plants to keep them short (for even lighting) so hopefully the top-heavy issue won't become a problem. Your concerns are definitely valid but I'm thinking that uncovering the plants and blowing cold air on them might be even worse.

The Explosive Ember had a nice bite to them when fresh, but as the peppers matured and dried in the early summer they seemed to lose a lot of their heat. So I'm trying some hotter varieties this winter. And the Explosive Ember were small "container-size" plants, probably similar to the Thai Sun I'm growing this winter, but the other 2 varieties I'm trying this winter are more vigorous so will pose some new challenges, which is the whole point of this :-)

Anyway, here's one of the 4 peppers I grew under my lights last winter, photo taken in mid-April just before I moved them from the growlights to a sunny windowsill. I'm just hoping to do this again, with different peppers. Failure would probably only encourage me to try harder next winter :)

Next are the Thai Sun peppers. These are doing the best, they've flowered and are setting lots of small peppers. They got moved from 2" pots a month ago to 6" pots now:

Here's a close up of some of the Thai Sun fruit:

Finally, here's the Tobasco peppers, definitely the slowest of the bunch, still in 2" pots like last month. I've pinched these once to force them to bush out, but it looks like they have a naturally bushy form so I probably didn't need to pinch them. Not sure why these are slower, they just are I guess. Cutting down on water, as recommended, seems to have helped them, thanks.

I've got to put a couple more LEDs on the ceiling.
That window has film on it and not enough light gets in.
Thats why I had to put the shop light over the plants in that window.
Plant has about 30 pods on it now with more buds that look like they might put out some new pods too.

Red

15 gal. and #15 pots.True 15 gal. ones are best.
Indoor plant is 4ft tall.

The red one is probably a ft. taller now,not much wider.

The red one was 1 of 3 plants I got at the nursery labeled as Habanero De arbol-orange pods.
Don't know if it's a throwback mutation or a cross.
There is a couple other tree shaped chile plants out there too.
Cabai Tree Chile , Chile Negro De Arbol , Black Chile Grande or Verde-I forget which.
Several others.

You have no trade list or E mail...I have seeds...

Thanks,

Caelian