Overwinter chilli plants?

[HeyWayne]

My purple tiger plant is very spindly with a lot of bushy growth at the top - it is top-heavy. So much so that I've had to support it with one of those coat hanger type support thingys. I'm tempted to cut it back to sure it up a bit, but it would probably mean cutting all the foliage off and would probably kill it. I'm hopeful it'll thicken up for spring...

[HotStuff]

I have 2 Apaches, a Numex Twilight, a Lantern and a Medusa inside on a sunny windowsill and they all seem to be surviving so far despite the whitefly. The others that are in the unheated greenhouse don't look too well, but I'm hoping some of them might hang on and spring in to life again. Must be about time to dig out the heated propagator and start some new ones off, getting itchy fingers

[cupcake]

I have 2 dead and 1 surviving! Thats the Cheyenne. It's had greenfly tho twice.

[Denise in York]

Hey - this is great news had thought I was being a fool to desperately try and keep mine going through winter Hurray for chillies ! Now really need to build a DIY poly tunnel for next winter not going to have enough window sills to see me through .

[Two_Sheds]

It's only an experiment .. they are annual plants, not perennial, so I don't expect any miracles.

Although one would be nice

[Mrs Jackson]

I've got 20 plants still going strong on various windowsills. If they make it through the winter then some of them will be 3 years old this year. Although if they all survive I've no idea what I'll do with all the seedlings I've got coming up! It's lovely to still be able to harvest something even in this weather.

Mrs J

[FoxHillGardener]

My purple tiger plant is very spindly with a lot of bushy growth at the top - it is top-heavy. So much so that I've had to support it with one of those coat hanger type support thingys. I'm tempted to cut it back to sure it up a bit, but it would probably mean cutting all the foliage off and would probably kill it. I'm hopeful it'll thicken up for spring...

you can cut it back in spring when it comes back in to growth. Note I said when, not if - positive thinking and all that

[Two_Sheds]

My one surviving chilli plant is producing new leaves, way hey!
I am reading Amateur Gardening, and the chilli expert on p.6 ~ his overwintered chillies look as tatty as mine does, so I feel a bit more optimistic.
He keeps them at 15C and pots them on into 5 litre pots in the spring, feeding with high potash tomato food.

[coomber]

My one surviving chilli plant is producing new leaves, way hey!

Mine too!! I even have a few flowers on it

[BrideXIII]

It's only an experiment .. they are annual plants, not perennial, so I don't expect any miracles.

Although one would be nice

chillies are perennials, not annuals

finally managed to get a pic of my winter wonder chilli.

not sure what type it is, it's one of the ones i got from the flower shop which i nearly killed and then flowered back late october early november.
As you can see, there are 7 chillies on there, and they are slowly ripening to yellow, which is what they are supposed to be i think, cos they were yellow when i got it and never ripened any further.
if anyone recognises the type, please let me know, bearing in mind they are yellow and don't go red.

I have just noticed that the other one has a new flower on it too

[nilling]

This is the first time I've managed to overwinter a chilli plant - Apache. I put it on an east facing windowsill that had a radiator underneath. It did have aphids on but is looking well at the moment. I'm chuffed

[HeyWayne]

Are we saying that Winter's over then?

If so, I've had "success" with four over-wintered chilli plants. Twighlight, Cayenne, Jalepeno and Purple Tiger. New growth on almost all plants - some with flowers (which the aphids seem to love!).

[leoblackcat]

I am really pleased with my chillies. It was my first year of growing them last year and have managed to overwinter 2 of my 5 plants. Apache and Cayenne, they have new leaves growing on them again now so hopefully they will produce loads of chillies this year!

[faerieprincess]

This is a hint I've picked up, but not one that I've tried myself yet - but to kill off the aphids and other bugs, have you tried popping the chilli plants into a big plastic bag and then spraying with rhubarb spray? If in the greenhouse, just spray but I figured indoors it would be a good idea to stop children/animals/nosy adults from touching the spray until it breaks down and stops being poisonous.

There is something about rhubarb spray in the 'How To by Geordie' under 'growing techniques' section.

Note: this IS a poison, and although it breaks down quickly, the saucepan and spoon will not be able to be used for food again, so use some charity shop offcasts.

Not absolutley sure if you can use it if you already have chillis formed, maybe others will be more knowledgeable about this - but I would have thought that as it breaks down quickly it would be fine as long as you didnt' plan on picking the chillis in the next few days.

[divvy]

I grew chillies from supermarket ones for the last 2 years so I don't know what type they are . They are quite large ones , not the little thin type . Anyway , they were still fruiting at the end of last year so I took them indoors and put them by the patio door to overwinter . They did fine but got white fly so in the end I had to put them out and they died . I will try again this year though .