Finally decided to try to overwinter peppers, and use the plants next year, read it in an organic gardeing mag a few years ago. Anyone else ever try it? Mine has just dried up the leaves,, been kept in a very cool spot,, moist not wet,, this just happened suddenly, not sure if its supposed to. Anyone have ideas??

-- Stan (sopal@net-port.com), December 22, 2000

Answers

Hi Stan: I did that one year. Mine lost all the leaves like a tree does in the fall. I kept them moist and in the light and they grew new leaves. I don't know if that is what is suppose to happen but that is what mine did.

-- diane (gardiacaprines@yahoo.com), December 22, 2000.

Wow, our peppers must have been related!. We tried this too with one jalapeno, dug it up right before the killing frost hit. Wasn't doing too bad for a couple of months, even had a few tiny peppers, Then the leaves started turning brown and drying up. Had to spray to get the aphids a couple of times. Finally just gave up, the thing's laying out in the garden now, waiting to be tilled under in the spring. We must have read the same article.

-- Cathey (uptain@familyconnect.com), December 22, 2000.

Peppers like alot of humidity.With our houses being heated,esp. with the low temps right now the indoor air is pretty dry. Mist your plants regularly.

I've kept them thru two winters,but then we moved, and the pepper stayed behind.

I've had them defoilate then come back,but if it happens a second time,they most likely won't survive.

Have two in the cool kitchen, now, still have leaves,for now anyway. Not ideal conditions.They don't like very cool either.Also will cause leaf drop.Around 60 and humid is better.How bout the bathroom?

-- sharon wt (wildflower@ekyol.com), December 22, 2000.

We've done it, but never had the lose their leaves completely - maybe transplant shock. Peppers have sensitive roots, maybe you're not digging far enough away from the root ball and sending the plant into shock. Ours came back just fine this year after overwintering last year in our house. Aphids can be a pest, but soapy water does the trick. Try keeping the plants a little warmer and you may get peppers during the winter!

-- Soni (thomkilroy@hotmail.com), December 23, 2000.

I've heard that the smaller the pepper plant the easier it is to overwinter. I'm lucky enought to be able to overwinter the smaller ones, thai and super chilis, under a layer of mulch. I dig some and bring inside, the bigger ones. The sudden change in amount of light is suppose to be behind the leaf loss, according to the CBC.ca plant person.

-- Desert Dry (shafteryachtclub@yahoo.com), December 25, 2000.

A friend give us a pepper plant three years ago. I think it was a Christmas pepper? not sure though. It got small (1 1/2 inch) peppers that turned red. We left the plant in the pot we were given and in the fall brought it inside. It bloomed profusely so I started to play insect and pollinated it with a q-tip. It just kept blooming and blooming. Spring came and outside it went to the garden again. Survived the summer and back inside it came. Pollinated it the next winter and lost it in the spring when we put it out in the garden. We got an unbelievable amount of peppers from the plant and I'll swear they got stronger every year or crop. I live in Sault Ste Marie Ontario Canada. I don't know what the temperature zone is but we had fun with the peper plant.

-- Paul Boettger (boettger@soonet.ca), March 16, 2002.