Chillies - growing and overwintering 2019

[Scarlet]

I love the challenge of overwintering! These days it's generally just 3 or 4 plants. I grow my chillies in very large pots so they take up quite a bit of space in the house.

I haven't had greenfly for several years indoors - if I did I would scrap the lot and start again. In the early days of overwintering I managed to take the greenfly into the greenhouse and all my tomatoes were covered too. I wouldn't chance it again.
They also get in the way, drop leaves and generally look a mess - you may get flack from the other half
The plus side is the plants fruit really early. My lemon drop this year produced fruit in March, my peach hab not far behind and I get a much bigger harvest than on a first year plant.
I would only overwinter a plant that takes a long time to fruit in its first year.

[Philthy]

I haven't had greenfly for several years indoors

Scarlet. Well?

[Scarlet]

Scarlet. Well?

I don't really know why I never get them. ( I've had my fair share of blackfly on my flowers this year)

Possibly because I get very little growth indoors. I live in a very old "long" house so the rooms on the end get little heat. They aren't sat by a radiator, I have an Aga in the room next to the room I keep the plants in so the heat is constant....and dry. Not cold and damp.
I rarely water. The pots are stone dry.
They are sat in a bay window. Though I've also had great results with plants kept on a windowsill in another room.

I bring them in when the weather is still good and the plants are looking good.
I think stressed plants are more likely to get green fly. Been left out to long and experienced a cold snap, in pots too small to encourage earlier fruiting, kept too dry to "make the pods hotter" etc or just keeping a handful so they all get some good light.
Other than that I haven't got a clue! Maybe just luck?

[Mitzi]

Do you recommend me getting a few plants to keep in the poly tunnel over the winter, or start from scratch next year.

Like everyone else says, it would be difficult to keep chillies alive in a polytunnel over winter, so I'd recommend starting from scratch next year. You'll need to start them off indoors. If you have growlights you could start in December or January. If you're relying on natural light then it's best to wait until February. (Ignore seed packet instructions which say to sow in April - that's too late.) I do have growlights but I still don't start annuums until February as they are quicker to fruit than the other species. As a general rule of thumb: the hotter the chilli, the longer it needs.

This year I'm not going to bring any plants in from outdoors to overwinter because of the pest problems it brings. I do have plants indoors which haven't (yet?) gone outside so I will keep some of those in to overwinter. I have a Bhut Orange Copenhagen which hasn't really developed and doesn't look as if it will produce anything this year, so I'll keep that in the hope it will do something next year. Also the Chupetinho from SP, which almost died when I was on holiday a few weeks away; it's started re-growing from the base but won't have enough time to do much this year, so I think I'll give that a chance at overwintering.

[Scarlet]

18th September brought in from the Green house


20th November



2nd January - took all the pods off


22 February


Last week - I don't think I would be exaggerating if I guessed that there's well over 200 pods on it.

[Philthy]

I don't know either. Wish I did have a conclusive answer though. I waste so much time dealing with infestations, it frequently ruins the pleasure of the hobby until they're dealt with anyway. Early part of winter period is generally trouble free as the staging area would have been well cleaned prior to bringing the plants in, and they themselves would've had a winter prune. Compost doesn't get changed until the following spring in order to prevent premature regrowth, so that could be a source of infection, but even that I generally scrape the surface layer off at the pruning stage in order to get any bugs that dropped off the leaves. Problem is it only takes a single aphid to survive in the soil or under the pot rim or just somewhere out of sight, and within a few weeks of discretely building numbers suddenly the population explodes.
Other issue could well be the local environment; doesn't matter how diligent I am, if my immediate neighbours who aren't at all green fingered had an aphid problem on the few shrubs that seem to survive in their garden, I doubt they would recognise it let alone do anything about it. And I've got no problem with that, each to their own and all. Does add another layer of challenge to my side though, aphids are generally wingless but will grow wings and move to a new host plant if their current one becomes too overcrowded. So any window left open when the wind is blowing the right way would also be a risk.

[Small pumpkin]

VC look, look one of my apple crisp is ripening!
It’s loaded with pods. I’m really looking forward to trying one of these.

[veggiechicken]

SP, Mine are turning too.



Jalapeno "Fooled you" is very productive. I've picked lots and given some away.



.......and the 3rd one you "made" me grow - Trinidad perfume.



They're all in different GHs so I'm hoping that will stop them crossing?

[Small pumpkin]

They’re all look good VC
Fooled you is a very productive little chap. Can’t harvest them fast enough.
Going to leave a couple to go red, see if the flavour improves.
Trinidad Perfume if you didn’t know any better could easily be mistaken for a sweet pepper. Well I think so. Be interested on your verdict when you’ve done your first taste test

Separate greenhouses should be enough to stop crossing

[Scarlet]

If my immediate neighbours......

That may be it. I have no neighbours either side or to the back of me. I am on a main road with neighbours opposite but nowhere near anything I grow.
I let the pods ripen indoors but I get very little growth on the plants, mostly I think due to the reduction in watering.

[Philthy]

I try to maintain zero growth. And a period of darkness in the early stages with like you say vastly reduced watering causes leaf drop as the plants go into shut down mode (if I cut the leaves off chances are the plant would reshoot, not what I want at that point). No leaves equals nowhere for greenfly to live, or at least establish. Plants won’t need their leaves again until spring and they’d grow new ones anyway whether the existing ones were left intact or not. De-leafing seems to be one of the most effective tools in the ongoing aphid war. I generally leave one or two leaves per plant though as they’re a good indicator of when I need to water. Anyway, that’s a couple of months away..


VC, looking very good! Of the two I’d say the Trinidad edges it for sweetness vs Apple Crisp; they’re both prolific fruiters though

[burnie]

I am having a bumper year with Hungarian Hot Wax this year, really like them too

[Scarlet]

They look fab Burnie!

[Mitzi]

Smaller harvest this week but a wider variety, including my first Havana Gold (seeds from Chrissyteacup.) Was curious to see if it's heatless or has some heat and I'm pleased to report that it's the latter. Very nice.

[Mitzi]

The three small red ones at the left are supposed to be Bhut Jolokia Peach. Definitely not what it's meant to be, that one. The two small red bonnets in the middle are supposed to be large and yellow. I'm having a disappointing year for things not turning out as labelled.