How to Overwinter Pepper Plants for Huge Pepper Harvests! 

Wow, thank you so much for following up! Glad that the process worked for you and you had so many plants make it. How are they doing now? You should have a very spicy summer this summer ahead of you with a start like that.

I appreciate it! No problem. Bringing pests inside really is the worst. Once they’re in, there’s all kinds of hiding places for them to stick around in so I’m always super conservative.

Neem cake is a great pest preventative and fertilizer when bringing things inside

Good tip with the sand! Didn’t know that.

Glad I could provide it!! Appreciate you

Good luck!

Appreciate it and best of luck!

No problem I’m glad you enjoyed it! The timing of uploading it is a little weird, but it took me a while to gather all the footage! And I figured it could be useful for some folks in the southern hemisphere in the meantime

No problem! What varieties are you saving for next year?

With less hour of sun in winter, the leaves will become yellow. It's best to prune it, after your last harvest. I use to let some plants on pot all year, and all the others plants in my soil garden, zone 9b. I wonder if I fill my beds with horse manure, digging the plant in it, after a pruning, or if I follow the advice of this chanel.

No problem and glad you had a good first season! Welcome to the addiction! Hope they make it through the winter so that you can build your collection next year.

You’re welcome, and let me know how it goes!

Good luck! Hope it makes it through the winter let me know how it goes.

Hope they make it! If so you should get some early season peppers next summer!

Glad I could help!

You are so welcome!

They’re the worst! Are you having better luck since rinsing the roots?

Glad you enjoyed! Thanks for the kind words

No problem! I’m so happy the algorithm did its job and brought you here. Thank you for the support!

Same, This will be my first time overwinter rising my pepper plants as well. I keep seeing to wash the roots and soak them and use good soap. I guess. and then to bake my dirt? So there's no little eggs in it. there's a lot to do I guess to get them ready to bring them in the garage..

I agree! I wish I had room indoors to start that early I’m normally around mid February

No problem!

I got Aphids in my Miracle-Gro Indoor Potting Mix. Not using their stuff anymore.

I got a horrible mix of spider mites and russet mites from a bag of foxfarm ocean soil. Sadly it seems like it can come from anywhere, even the “premium” brands

Have you found a good alternative? I got a dump truck of good local garden soil delivered for my outdoor beds but it’s hard finding good potting soil.

Or just add beneficial nematodes, easy and fortifies the soil with good guys

I had my pepper plants growing in pots. I used the "dunking" method by making a neem oil mix with Castile soap.I made enough to submerge the whole pot and left it there for about 10 minutes. I then sprayed the leaves with Incesticide soap and left that for about another 10 minutes, then hosed them down with water and crossing my fingers!!!

Let me know if they make it! What varieties did you try with?

No problem!

No problem! More to come!

Great climate and area! The head start really does help with production. Last time I was down there I brought some of my peach hot sauce to have on oysters, they were excellent.

If you try it next year let me know how it goes! Yes the definition of a trowel is “a small handheld shovel” lol

Indeed !! @@jackspepperpatch

All good tips!! How do you apply the hydrogen peroxide?

Glad it could help! When it hits 50’s consistently at night is normally when mine start to yellow and lose leaves and that’s when I’ll do this process. Best of luck!

@@jackspepperpatch It's 50's here with 40 expected tonight, hope they make it until tomorrow. Nice video.

No problem, and let me know how it goes!

@@jackspepperpatch One survived out of the 3. To be fair, I pulled them after first frost, so I am lucky any survived at all.

Appreciate it! I do the exact same for timing. If it’s a bigger plant sometimes I’ll even go more than 3 nodes up - like 4 or 5 sometimes! Really awesome when you can get a huge plant through the winter

I appreciate it! Glad you had at least one make it last year it really does help with earlier and bigger harvests. And I agree the ones that do make it normally are really strong the following season! I had the same thing happen for the first time this year with a plant coming through its second winter. The whole top died and right before I composted it a new shoot came up from the ground. I’ve got a short of it up on my page!

Jealous! Love Australia, never been to WA though. What kind of peppers are popular there?

How big did your overwintered rocoto get? I'm growing them for the first time this year (Desert Cherry Red variety from APS), and the first ones are only just now starting to ripen, with a frost expected tomorrow night. The plants are huge though - about 5.5ft tall and 6ft wide, and have a good number of green fruit on them.

@@memph7610 mine also got huge and had a lot of fruit that ripened very late in the season! I tried to keep them outside for as long a I could (tbh they seemed hardier than most chili plants). Night temperatures just around 0 degrees celsius didn't seem to bother the plant very much. If I remember correctly, I harvested the last batch of green peppers in early November. I live in Zone 8b.

No problem and congrats on your successful overwintering!

You keep them inside under light?

Love it when they grow into trees like that!

How do you use the peppers? I just tried one and it about did me in.

Thank you! And I’m glad it worked out! I bet that plant is a tree at year 3! The super hots seem to really take well to this process and bounce back strong

What zone are you in? If they’ll survive in the ground yeah totally just do that! Much less work on your part.

@@jackspepperpatch Portugal. No idea what US zone it would be. I have 50 plants in the ground this year. They were nobbled by sheep so I haven't even had a harvest. It's a lot of plants to bring indoors, lol. I cut them back like in your vid but will only bring a few indoors. I plan to grow fava beans around those left in the ground, for some protection.

Oh no! Are the plant stems brown or green? You could always try the scratch test - scratch them with your fingernail near the base and if they’re green inside then they’re alive and just dormant.

@@jackspepperpatch Hi Jack, I have done as you said, I scraped of the bark at the base of the plants, and they were all brown, and a couple of them just pulled out from the compost and the roots just snapped off. I don't know why this happened, but I did notice that over winter, there was some tiny flying insects that looked like gnats. I tried to get rid of them with soapy water, and maybe that also killed the plants. So now I have started to grow some more plants from seed, even though we are now in May. I might be lucky and get one crop. All the best!!!

Jealous that you can just leave them! Bet those are huge being in ground and 3 years old. What kinds of peppers are popular in Australia?

No problem and good idea! That would work as well.

Glad you enjoyed!

I personally haven’t noticed a difference in the heat level year to year. I did have a few plants that produced smaller peppers in subsequent years, but not sure if that was from the overwintering or just other outside factors. Fingers crossed yours make it through the winter though! Our summer 2022 was a little weird too so some of my plants like the little scotch bonnet I show the steps with got stunted too. That’s one of my favorite parts of overwintering is that it’s like a second chance at a season!

I've overwintered my chillies a few times and I'm always sure to leave at least a couple of leaves on each branch. If you cut everything off completely you risk the plant not being able to get enough energy to stay alive and it'll die.

Biggest risk with leaving any leaves on is aphids. They can definitely help though if you’ve got the room and light setup

It sounds like you may have a different problem. If I remember right, bud drop is usually a sign that the plant is under some kind of stress. My red bell grew well but dropped most of its blooms this year because of a mix of thrips and irregular watering.

@@ajchapeliere Some off my blooms turned yellow and fell off. I either trimmed it too much or too much nutrients.

What kind of temperatures did you have the plant in? Mine typically only drop blossoms when the temperature gets extremely hot. In those times of year I find giving them part shade or just afternoon shade works well to prevent it.

Do your peppers keep the heat?

@@melindaammons5262 Oh heck yes 🔥🔥 i think there even hotter 👉👉 but there a way to use them. Use less makes for less heat and more flavor. Like salsa ect. some time i put to much, and set me on fire 🔥🔥 I do like my stuff hot 👉👉 But i don't like a long burning that keep on going hotter and hotter and hotter 🔥🔥

Yeah, the head start can make all the difference!! Best of luck and let me know how it goes.

Did you water them

Yeah, I've tried this the last couple of years, first year the plant didn't survive the winter, last year the 2 didn't survive the transition back. Fingers crossed I've learned enough this year's might make it.

So I've brought them in and I've noticed they are already growing new leaves. Thoughts on removing those before winter fully sets in?

Appreciate it! I’m in zone 7a. Yes in the fall and timing kind of just depends on the weather. When it starts consistently being in the 50’s at night the plants normally start to get pretty unhappy and leaves will start turning yellow and falling off. That’s when I’ll do it! Took this video last fall but then had to get some of the shots of them budding back out and then with editing time added up to March. Crazy it’s about time to do it all again!

Yes! They won’t need much water without the leaves so very infrequent. Only watering when they’ve completely dried out from the last time. The fresh dirt should provide all the nutrients the plant needs through dormancy too so no fertilizer needed until the new leaves start really coming out in the spring.

Always!!! 🌶️

What zone are u in

Thank you! Did your plants last year make it? They can be pretty tough.

@@jackspepperpatch They Did 😊👍 I put them in the garage for the winter. There is a window that gave them apparently enough sunlight. (I’m in 7a Mississippi) The only pepper that didn’t seem to benefit from it was the plablons for some reason 🤔 all the rest 👍 One of your tips such a simple one I didn’t label them had no clue lmao which one was what 😆🤦‍♀️ I did make sure to add diatomaceous earth and sprayed once w neem But you did a much better job, especially rinsing the Roots 👍I will do it your way this year cause I said them damn nat bug 😡

Habaneros like relatively warm temperatures in my experience, compared to other pepper varieties. If it's 5C at night or 15C during the day or soil temperature of 10C, habaneros and other chinense varieties don't seem to tolerate that as well as bacatum, annuum, pubescens and fruitescens vareities. All peppers would prefer 20C+ during the day and 10C+ at night with 15C+ soil, but those 4 species seem to tolerate the sub-optimal cool temperatures better than chinense varieties. At least, that's what I've found in my part of Canada, where mid summer is around 20-30C during the day and 10-18C at night, but where May 15-June 20 and Sep 1-Oct 10 can get a fair bit of those cooler days. My chinense varieties produced fairly well, but I started them in early March and had them in 0.5-1.5L containers indoors before planting them in early June. My top producer was an orange scotch bonnet that gave me 1kg of ripe fruit, and about 300g of unripe green fruit. My worst producer was a variety called St Croix, where the in-ground plant gave me 115g of ripe and 50g of green peppers, but I like the taste, it's just slow to mature, so I'll try to overwinter it anyways. The one in a container had about double the yield. I also had one overwintered habanada plant in a 20L container, which produced 1.2kg of ripe peppers and 320g unripe/green. That compares to 350g ripe and 60g green for the other habanada pepper I had which was on its first season, so it does seem like overwintering helps a lot. With my large sweet pepper varieties (bell, marconi, shepherd, gypsy), I'll be averaging over 1.5kg per plant, with the top producer giving me 2.2kg of fruit - all of which were ripe by mid September, and with the first ones ripening in late July. By comparison, my sweet peppers that are on their first year will produce about half that per plant.

@@memph7610 Thanks for sharing a plethora of knowledge and experience. My habanero, singular, was just one fruit. Where I live we have cool nights and very hot days, at least in midsummer. It's rated from 6-b to seven. I'm thinking of getting some of those so called Wall of Waters to put around my peppers to extend the season and I can always store them for an early start for my bottle gourds next spring. I live in an apartment complex so I can't give peppers full sun all day long since I have them near the house. Then again, I've read they do better with some shade. I'll try again and maybe I'll wind up deciding it's better to buy them at a famer's market.

@@vernonfrance2974 If you're from Vernon, France, than your climate has a fairly cool growing season, similar to mine. Your mid summer climate is about 1C cooler, but your growing season is longer than mine since Vernon has warmer springs and autumns. I'm in Zone 5 Ontario. Eastern American zone 6-7 has similar winters to northern France, but much hotter summers. An average high of 24C for July and August is quite cool by international standards. Most of the US has an average July high of 30C+, even 35C+ in Texas and 40C+ in parts of the SW like Phoenix. Habaneros should be able to handle a few 35C+ days fine, just need a bit more water on those days. Right now, I've dug up my peppers for overwintering, but will keep the remaining fruits on for a week or two so they can ripen a bit more before I prune them back. Tommorrow night will be cold (-3C, the first frost of the season) but next week will be milder. I think some shade is ok, my top producing orange scotch bonnet had full sun (8 hours) in the first half of the growing season when it was flowering, but then much less (3-4 hours) in the second half when ripening.

@@memph7610 Thanks again for the details. Actually I live near Boise ID now and I use that name which was the name of a friend I had who has passed. We are having an unusually warm fall and a frost is not predicted in the ten day forecast which would bring it up to November 3 whereas the average is close to October 10th as the average first frost date. What you say about these peppers being adapted to much higher heat than we have here in Southern Idaho makes a lot of sense. I got my plant from a Home Depot so I don't know what its origin is. I'm short on inside space but I'm going to try to overwinter, dracenas, false dracenas, bamboo, geraniums, jade plants, amaryllis, aloe vera and more so I need to use up as little space as I can to make all those plants fit in. I sometimes forget that Ontario dips farther south than much of the northern tier of states in the US. With that in mind, I still know that that can produce some fierce winter weather as I am originally from Northern Illinois. Bon chance!

@@vernonfrance2974 Ah okay, your comments make more sense if they're about Boise. It does indeed get quite hot during the summer days there. But chinense peppers with adequate watering and adequate space to send out their roots should still do fine there I think. This spring I forgot to open the greenhouse windows one day and it got to 45-50C for a whole afternoon, which severely damaged several of my annuum peppers, but had no visible negative effect on my chinense (habanada) pepper. Extended periods of 35-40C days with warm nights can cause chinense peppers to have fewer leaves and fruits, but shouldn't do too much harm beyond that. 30-35C days should be fine, especially with

Glad you're having no issues with bugs so far! If you've made it this far into the winter with none, then you probably got away with it. I see no reason to clean the roots before putting them back outside into the garden! There will always be bugs outside, so even if anything made it through the winter on the plants it won't be a huge deal.

Fingers crossed it works out for you this year! It’s always worth a shot

If it doesn’t get below 0 outside where you are then that will work. They’re perennials, but they are native to warmer climates.

If it goes below freezing then they will die. If it goes below 10C for you inside for long periods then they may struggle a bit but could still make it.

Yes, very light watering! I normally add water and then wait for it to completely dry out before adding any more. I think last winter I only had to water these 3 or 4 times all winter because they don’t use much at all without any leaves. Hope that helps!

@@jackspepperpatch yes it does! Thank you

I live in zone 6 and don't have a place in my house to put them in the winter. Do you think they would survive in a shed? I can put a portable greenhouse around them.

@@debbiewulfhorst8355 frost is the killer as long as its frost free yes.

That's my question too. No space in my home but I have a huge unheated garage with lots of windows.

@@livingintoday1073 frost free is the main issue but even then it may not be enough,some plants require a minimum temperature to tick over until spring , you can only try.