Sweet Bell Peppers

[Thelma Sanders]

Mine got a severe case of greenfly, so it's had a good haircut, and been moved into the cold spare bedroom. Fingers crossed

[Scoot]

This Bell pepper just will not go dormant lol.

Not only is new leaves growing (very slowly) but I've also just noticed a few little flower buds where the new leaves are at.

[Penellype]

These are my somewhat unconventionally grown Snackbite Orange sweet peppers. They are in 2 litre pots on the south facing landing windowsill.



2 of the plants had finished fruiting and were cut down in mid October, one to about an inch and the other to 2 inches. The pots were left where they were rather than taking them off the self watering mat, which tends to make the place a bit smelly. I left the other 2 plants as one had 2 small fruit on and the other a flower. One of the small fruit is now starting to turn orange and the flower has set a tiny fruit. More remarkably, both of the hacked off plants are sprouting new leaves:



I'm going to try to overwinter these, with the intention of potting them up into bigger pots if they survive, and maybe taking them to my friend's greenhouse for the summer.

[Scoot]

Took some photo's of the one sweet bell pepper plant that i have been over wintering. The little leaves at the top have been there most of the winter and 1 or 2 of them are actually falling off. Should it be producing new leaves yet. Is there a way to encourage it to do that? Should i add some growmore or pot it on yet?

Any help will be greatly appreciated.

Also in picture if the one tomato plant i over wintered which needs potting on and planted a bit deeper as it's a bit leggy and some of this years sweet bell pepper seedlings.

[Thelma Sanders]

Mine got a severe case of greenfly, so it's had a good haircut, and been moved into the cold spare bedroom. Fingers crossed

It died

[Scarlet]

I'd be tempted to pot it on. I was going to wait a few more weeks to do my chillies but it will give them a boost. It maybe looking a little sad now but it looks reasonably healthy. Fingers crossed you will get a good crop from that.

Lucky you managing to keep a Tom on through the winter, you'll have a head start with those cuttings!

# the roots are a bit exposed - you could just top dress that pot with some new compost if you haven't got much windowsil space.

[Scoot]

I'd be tempted to pot it on. I was going to wait a few more weeks to do my chillies but it will give them a boost. It maybe looking a little sad now but it looks reasonably healthy. Fingers crossed you will get a good crop from that.

Lucky you managing to keep a Tom on through the winter, you'll have a head start with those cuttings!

# the roots are a bit exposed - you could just top dress that pot with some new compost if you haven't got much windowsil space.

Thanks for the reply Scarlet.

I think it should be ok to pot on. I'll find somewhere for it to go. I think i'll put it into a 10 ltr pot with some new compost and maybe a little growmore. I noticed the roots were exposed a little yeah. I'll make sure they're covered by a couple of cm's of compost.

On the tomato plant, i was actually surprised it's made it this far. It's either a Money Maker or a Gardeners delight, i can't remember. The only reason it is standing up in that photo is because it is leaning against the glass. As soon as i move it it falls over haha. The top end of the stem is thicker than the bottom. That's why i will be planting it quite deep.

[Scarlet]

Yeah, I wasn't so sure about the fertiliser. I suppose it depends how dormant you want to keep them. In a cooler place they'll stay more dormant, and in a warmer place more active. One Christmas I was visiting my sister in the UK and she had a Hungarian goatshorn pepper plant in the house still producing chillis.

I had a red habanero that stayed in the house. It got too big to carry through the door to take it out. It never went dormant and gave a continuous supply of chillies. In year 4 I needed the room for our xmas tree so I chopped it right back and put it our shed. It was fine upto Spring but then had a serious greenfly problem so I got rid of it

[Paulieb]

Took some photo's of the one sweet bell pepper plant that i have been over wintering. The little leaves at the top have been there most of the winter and 1 or 2 of them are actually falling off. Should it be producing new leaves yet. Is there a way to encourage it to do that? Should i add some growmore or pot it on yet?

Any help will be greatly appreciated.

Also in picture if the one tomato plant i over wintered which needs potting on and planted a bit deeper as it's a bit leggy and some of this years sweet bell pepper seedlings.

If you can hold off on the feeding until March that might be better as ideally you prob don't want too much growth until then,.........but having said that if its starting to grow then others may say you might as well encourage it, feed it and let it romp away if you can give it enough space and light.

Grow more will work initially for new stems and leaves but then you'll prob want to change to a feed with more potassium (more K) once it starts flowering, maybe in May/June.

[Scoot]

If you can hold off on the feeding until March that might be better as ideally you prob don't want too much growth until then,.........but having said that if its starting to grow then others may say you might as well encourage it, feed it and let it romp away if you can give it enough space and light.

Grow more will work initially for new stems and leaves but then you'll prob want to change to a feed with more potassium (more K) once it starts flowering, maybe in May/June.

It's not growing to be honest. Those leaves at the top of the plant sprung up a few months ago but a few of them are dying now. I might just wait until March as you say.

Do you mean feed it with a tomato fertiliser? I will do that but hasn't growmore got a healthy level of potassium in?

[Scoot]

After getting it almost through the whole winter, it's starting to go brown at the top and bottom. I will be fuming if it dies now after getting it this far. I've just potted it on and added some growmore so i havn't given up just yet.

[BertieFox]

Sorry if someone has already asked this in this thread, but does anyone know how to prevent problems of brown rot on peppers? The plants are doing well, the fruit are formed, and suddenly the whole thing goes brown and rots before ripening.... into a horrible squishy mess. It tends to happen towards the end of the season and primarily on the ones grown outside, though polytunnel ones are also sometimes affected. .

Is it a particular disease and are there any things I can do to prevent this? Some of my favourite open pollinated varieties seem to be the most affected.