Chillies - growing and overwintering 2021

[ameno]

My peppers are finally starting to ripen up in number.
Laylak, Hungarian yellowwax, Sweet Heat, Biquinho, and the unnamed pointed yellow sweet peppers I grew from saved seeds are all ripening.

[ameno]

How long do you guys find that ripe peppers keep on the plant?
I'm facing a real glut of them at the moment, but if they'll keep for a couple weeks or more just left on the plant then I'll do that, rather than picking them and then either trying to keep them in the fridge or processing them into something.

[quanglewangle]

My sweet pepper is flowering again! Greenhouse pot grown and yielded well. It seemed be finished so I stood the pot outside by the compost heap and forgot all about it.

Now its got loads of new growth from the bottom and lots of flowers.

I can keep it well lit and frost free, just, and greenhouse has in-ground heating.

Worth keeping?

[SimpleSimon]

Getting tons of ripe chillis and peppers now. Don't water very know so they are looking a little droopy.

[ameno]

My sweet pepper is flowering again! Greenhouse pot grown and yielded well. It seemed be finished so I stood the pot outside by the compost heap and forgot all about it.

Now its got loads of new growth from the bottom and lots of flowers.

I can keep it well lit and frost free, just, and greenhouse has in-ground heating.

Worth keeping?

Definitely worth hanging onto for now. The new peppers probably won't ripen, but you should still get an extra crop of green peppers from it.

[annie8]

Getting some cayenne but scotch bonnet are staying stubbornly green, big fruits this year though.

[ameno]

Just found some interesting sounding Bulgarian varieties of pepper seeds for sale on eBay and bought four types... I already have eight or nine varieties I want to grow next year. I'm going to have peppers coming out of my ears...

[annie8]

Think I need to do some pruning of my chilli plants. They are continuing to produce buds and flowers but not ripening the fruit already formed. At this rate I’ll have loads of very unripe scotch bonnets.

[Nicos]

Just a heads up !!!

Dont forget to enter your plants into our competition ( the chillies don’t need to be harvested!)- it ends this coming Thursday!

https://www.growfruitandveg.co.uk/gr...illies-peppers

[SimpleSimon]

Defo starting to feel like the end in my tunnel. I have plenty now so starting to remove quite a few plants to tidy. Still got an absolutely monumental harvest to do tho.

Ripe Venezuelan Tiger


Same but ripening



Armegeddon




Fatalli absolutely laden. Probs didn't 2 of these!

[annie8]

Finally a sign that one of my scotch bonnets is turning from green. Hopefully some ripe fruit on the way. Been really cold here and was thinking I’d need to take the plants inside soon to have any hope.

[SimpleSimon]

If one is turning the rest will follow suit. Don't water the plants at all and just let them drop dead if you don't intend to over winter them. This seems to spark them into ripening everything. I even just chop them at the base of the stem and hang them upside down in my tunnel. This then rapidly ripens them. Although this time of year it's a risk as lots of the fruit rot if it's cold and damp, which it is. You could hang it inside your house tho.

[ameno]

In your experience, how frost resistant are pepper plants usually?
I had always assumed the answer was "not at all", yet when I went out on my patio last night, a good half of my potted pepper plants had ice on the leaves, yet this afternoon they are completely fine. None the worse for wear at all. You'd never know anything happened.

[stigs]

I have about 10 plants tat were outside in pots all year ( most were over wintered from last year ) more than half are still ok even with fruit although after the last 2 days cold wind they look like they won't survive much longer.

[ameno]

I brought mine in about 10 days ago, in the end, just before that cold spell we had. They still have fruit ripening on them in my conservatory now. They're a lot more cold resistant than I thought.
I'm also trying to overwinter three plants in the ground. I've cut them back to about a foot of trunk, pack them with straw and wool, and topped with an old compost bag each. We'll see how they do.