I am not a big fan of over-wintering. the few times i have tried, half them die the other half seem to take so long to take back off that i was just as far ahead with the new plants.lately i have been taking potted ones to the basement to let them ripen up. no special care or lighting, they slow down, i usually have fresh peppers till the end of january. That being said, i have a Blue Mystery plant that is 3 years old. it came through the first year with no care so i decided to see how long i could keep it. I brought a dozen in this year but haven't decided if i am gonna try and keep any of them after they ripen up. I might try a few this year.

Walking through mine as well. I believe I may try to save 2 of everything (the Noah syndrome). :)

What doesn't make it through the winter wont be added to, since I plan to try some new seeds next year.

Most of saved are Habs (Chocolate, Safi, Solar Flare, Punkin), Extremes (Ghosts, Scorpions, etc) Fataliis, a few non hots (Aleppo, Monkeys) a few Hybrids and others that are only 1 plant and whatever else looks like it is bushy enough to survive being cut down. Only so much room in the Green House. The rest..... GARBAGE.

I gotta admit, my perspective is changing a bit now that I have access to more hot sauce than I could ever use by myself, and plenty of powders for personal use too.

I'm definitely gonna try to save a now 2 year old brain strain that was my first superhot ever to sprout, and I'm mildly sentimental.

now in addition to that, I'll probably try to save a white 7pot, and a particularly healthy douglah and a 7pot chaguanas, because they're the only plants still putting out pods despite how little attention my plants are getting with my new schedule. I'll probably try to save one of chocolate scorpions with gnarly looking zigzag trunks too, maybe even bonchi it.

I have a 4x4x8 grow house that I typically use for post germination of new plants; however, I've built a shelving system that will accomodate both post germination activity a/ keeping five plants actively growing. Those five being:
1. Chocolate Scorpion
2. TScorp BT
3. Carolina Reaper
4. Weird Cayenne looking plant (I'll post sep pic tomorrow)
5. Brazillian Starfish (not 100% sure yet)

As far as the others go, I have enuff room to keep another dozen or so over-wintered. Just need to figure out who those are.

Johnny

The temperature is all over the place here too. I am keeping 1 Carolina Reaper, 1 orange habanero, and 1 cayenne. I had to much time in them to just pull them. It's my first time overwintering so I was a little freaked out cutting them back and trimming the root ball but so far they look ok.
Randal

The wife doesn't go to the basement all year... but she sure raises hell when i fill it with pepper plants every fall..

Last year I overwintered a dwarf ornamental (Sangria). This year it did amazingly well. So I'll keep that one and probably a red and an orange habaneros. The rest will be composted.

Seysonn

Three red Bhuts and a tree hab. Plan to cut back foliage and root systems. The hibiscus like that treatment, so I figger the peppers will too...

Outside stuff is being pulled today - it's dead after below-freezing nights, and this is the last warm (above 60) day to do it. 1 Douglah is dead (the one that dropped all the top leaves, I cut it off but the new growth at the bottom is dead too), and 1 bih. Another (with a single pod I'm waiting to ripen, it's orange now) is on the way out. Aphids did the bihs in, not sure about Douglah. So far the other Douglah, 1 bih, and 1 purple serrano look OK, though the bih and serrano are still infested though I spray with Organicide weekly. But I've had these 6 plants going a few years now, as long as I have 1 bih and 1 Douglah and can get a pod off each every year or so to save seed and start more, I'm happy.

I just can't get my potted plants to produce like you guys do - maybe b/c I don't like to put them outside so they don't get pollinated (I try to hand-pollinate) though they do flower pretty well. I put the bih and serrano outside this year and they got aphids (so did the HH seedlings I was going to overwinter, I kept 3 and sprayed but they shriveled up and died too).

My in-ground plants produce well, just late. I'm going to start seed right after New Years and try to get them in the hoophouse early next year. Not sure if I'll leave some in pots, or dig up and try to overwinter - we'll have to see if they get aphids (I never notice them when the plants are outside, but as soon as I bring them in, they're all over the place!).

(joking manner)

"Hand Pollinate!" Who the hell has that much time? That's why Jesus made bees.

Johnny

My favorite pepper so far (Caribbean red hab) is still in the ground and miraculously its still going. The seeds I have from it are very few and questionable. This is one I don't want to lose... I've never overwintered so... In this case definitely one worth trying.
. I have one other that I will definitely try overwintering, that has questionable seed. It is in a med sized pot and was tagged Trinidad moruga scorpion from the nursery but looks like a trinidad/hab cross. Been taking it in and out every day trying to get some ripe pods.
Mystery moruga pods... Super hot but obviously not scorps.

dj

This post was edited by djoy on Wed, Nov 5, 14 at 23:01

SJohn - that's why I only keep 5-6 plants indoors! In fact, I got tired of that, so repotted 4 and left them outside while the Douglah (already in the largest pots I own) just got new potting soil and fertilizer added and left inside. I have no idea why 1 of them lost all its leaves and went belly up 3 months later. But the other is jut starting to get flower buds again, no aphids that I can tell, and the bih is almost totally orange so I will be cutting that plant back and spraying all of those 4 again (maybe 3, I think 1 bih is dead).

Douglah is 2ft away and aphids don't seem to have found it yet. If I had another sunny room I'd move it but I don't. As it is I have to move my plants every December b/c DH insists on putting the Xmas tree in my sunny south bay window. I'm hoping one year to have a 7ft pepper "tree" with red and green pods!