advice with pot size for peppers and chili

[Philthy]

Agreed, good overview SarsWix

I follow a similar process. Post 'propogator' (mine the most basic form of, definitely replacing next year) in which I use 1" sq peat cells (if I can find them), I then plant individually into 3" pots. Once roots start poking through the bottom of the pot, I move plants to 6" (2L), then to final size of 8" (4L). I find this to be fine for the duration of the year.
Last year I did two sowings (early Jan, early March); the Jan sowings of Espelette, Thai Dragon, and Joe's Long ultimately performed better in the summer for growth and went into final pot size of 10" (7L) to maximise this.
My main motivation for wanting to not go too big too soon is practicalities of space for overwintering. I can still get a decent, well developed plant, and modest yield using 4L pots, but more importantly it means I can accommodate fifteen of them side-by-side indoors come late October. As was demonstrated to me quite clearly this time around, it's good to have a fair number of plants as insurance against losses.

There is an argument too that restricting the roots in a smaller pot makes for hotter pods, if that's what you're going for.

The following year those overwintered plants can then be transplanted into 15L pots around April/May time, weather depending, and then they'll stay in that pot for the rest of the year. I find the plants' subsequent performance makes overwintering a worthwhile endeavour, and of particular benefit to maximise crops of hotter types, though with the exception of Fatalii, and Paper Lantern, I'm tending to move away from those these days.

[Mitzi]

So when I've finally potted in say 9 litre pots and eventually the roots stick out at the bottom I just leave it like That?

Yep, once they are in your final size pot (whatever size you have decided that will be) you just leave them but make sure you feed them enough.

[the big lebowski]

philthy ,do you have much luck overwintering ? i have done it in the past but not very successfully ,id really like to try grafting 4-5 diff types of chillis onto 1 plant "rootstock" do you know a type of chilli that overwinters better than others ? i do have lights to keep i alive over winter time,any thoughts welcome cheers

[Philthy]

philthy ,do you have much luck overwintering ?

Evening BigL,

Yes I do Enough to consider the process an essential part of my chilli growing year at any rate.
Provided I follow a few guidelines, it's a worthwhile undertaking, but still no guarantees it'd be a successful one, so to insure against this I always aim to have at least two good specimens of each of the plant types I want to grow on. That's the main reason I avoid potting up too big in Year 1;
I want to maintain as much plant variety as I can, know that a few losses are inevitable, and space indoors during winter is limited.
Timing is probably the most important factor governing success rate i.e. knowing when to bring plants indoors, followed by getting the watering ratio right during those long, dark months, and maintaining a consistent temperature. With those factors done correctly, plants will happily slumber away in suspended animation, their likelihood of regeneration greatly improved. In practice achieving this perfect balance over a period of months is the hard part; living in the space as well requires a certain amount of discipline to maintain the environmental status quo, e.g. not turning the heat up in the back bedroom - my overwintering space - extra blankets is the compromise there
Whether to attempt/ bother with the process at all is I'd think influenced mainly by how the plants perform during the active growth summer months. Fast growers / prolific fruiters / widely available; perhaps not necessary to overwinter these as there's no real advantage over what can be achieved just growing from scratch with a good setup, and a good season.
Personally, I always do Lemon Drops as I think they're fantastic all rounders, and they can put on huge growth in subsequent years. Chinense types are good investments too; due to their slow growth rate, you can't always get a crop in one year from seed. I have regular success with Fatalii, Habanero, Lantern, the Trinidads...
I don't repot prior to overwintering or feed during as for me that would just stimulate new growth, in conditions that would not support healthy development.

Having said all that, it doesn't really address your query of overwintering under lights!
Sorry, BigL, no experience of that side of things so wouldn't like to say. I do recall grape JusPotterinTim some while ago now is/was quite clued up on the pros and cons of under lights overwintering; he'd be a good source of info I'm sure (or at least his old posts will be..)

[the big lebowski]

thx phlthy ,i dont have to use the lights its just my flats were built at a specific angle that they dont get much sunlight at the best of times ,what sort of temps would you recomend ? in winter i only heat my living room and not the rest of my flat (extra blankets here too)

i like your idea of keeping the plants in smaller pots for the 1st year this has been my main concern in the past ,bringing 25 liter pots back inside would take up to much space and i dont want all the bugs crawling about inside either ,i have 12 chillis up my plot and about 10 inside in 6 inch pots atm so ill keep them back and see if i can overwinter those ,thx for your post it was v helpful,cheers

[gringo]

Not really on topic, but a few years ago I grew habaneros (for the first time) and kept them indoors all year in 5" pots - small aside - the (tiny) fruit changed from green to orange and red in Christmas week which was nice! - then potted them up into 10" pots in late spring and left outside. This then gave me two layers of different sized fruit, the bottom half of the 'canopy' producing marble sized habaneros and above, golf ball sized.

Nature/what we do with it, is weird!

(so is shampooing your chili plants)

[Philthy]

Hi BigL, re. temperature, I've never actually measured it to be honest it would be useful to know for sure. Given that it is a sealed off, unheated space, but nonetheless a room within an otherwise insulated house, as appose to a porch or garage, I'd guess it'd be around 9 celcius as an average? Couple degrees less in the early hours. The plants are next to the window, so there'll be fluctuations in how cold. West facing window it gets sun from about 2pm, so in depths of winter it's actually quite gloomy in that room. As long as it stays cool, and compost is on the dry side, it's fine as the plants aren't growing. They're just ticking over, bridging the seasons.

Give you an idea of my setup, these pictures are 2015/16 overwintering plants (taken Feb 2016):
(It's quite handy working for a sign company as it means I have an endless supply of reflective materials, which is what the grey panel is; it's mirrored on the plant side )

8" (4L) pots (as shown with exception of the black pot front row) seem to give the most consistant results for me. I find 6" to be slightly too small; the plants need to be fairly well established before coming back indoors, and able to cope with the rigours of the GH in that first summer i.e. not dry out too quick. If your plant is a 3" stump to begin with in a small pot it doesn't allow much room for any die-back that might occur, makes it harder to monitor the plants' health, plus they're more vulnerable to (e.g.) the watering not being quite right, or the dreaded greenfly making an appearance. But the most obvious reason would be a lot of the development and gain from that first season is gone again.

These are a couple of those same plants, potted up in May 2016:

(so is shampooing your chili plants)

Maybe keep that to yourself, Gringo

[the big lebowski]

ok well that looks great thx for the photos too ,i looked out a load of slighty bigger pots ,ill start potting them up this weekend ,do you not trim your overwintering chillis ? i thought thats how most people did it ,what are the pro`s of not cutting them back ? cheers