Q1 - Overwintering peppers?

[Kirk]

More or less as it says, can I overwinter a sweet pepper, well 6 to 8 of them.
Do not have a green house or a conservatory.

Reason is that the several I have appear to have sat there looking stupid. All green, all look reasonably healthy, but almost no real increase in height or anything.

Just thinking if I could carry any over to have another go next year with them or any.

[bearded bloke]

IIRC Bren has peppers that are a few years old

[SusieG]

I'm also hoping to overwinter some sweet peppers ~ Kirk, mine too just seem to be sitting there with a silly look on their faces ....... Look nice and healthy but don't appear to be doing a n y t h i n g !!!!!

Can someone just run through best way/things to do to overwinter (I have an unheated GH)

[Scarlet]

Some chillies/peppers over winter well others just keel over and die. Susie, it's much too cold in the GH during the winter. They really need to be kept in the house. My chillies are kept on a windowsill. Make sure you. Don't shut them behind a curtain at night! Some peeps have light to help them along come early Spring. You don't want to put them back in the GH until night time temps are consistently over 12 so they are in the house looking a mess forr a good 6months.
You can prune back the straggly shoots to make a compact plant, some peeps prune the roots - I dont. They may drop all their leaves during winter some don't. There aren't any hard or fast rules. Aphids can be a challenge on young, sappy green growth early on in Spring. So they need as much light as possible with cooler growing conditions to stop them stretching for light. Water sparingly and then keep everything crossed!

[SusieG]

Thank you Scarlet - very helpful ........ I'll have to have a good look around for a suitable windowsill where curtains aren't going to be drawn - oh, does it matter if there's a radiator below the windowsill that'll be giving out heat some of the time.....?

[Thelma Sanders]

Agree with Scarlet, I sometimes dig the strongest ones up from the greenhouse border, so the roots of those do get a bit of a prune Ha Ha
I also think it's worth covering the top of the soil with a piece of weed control fabric/fleece, because in some years Sciarid flies can be a real problem. One winter they were so bad(I had a house full of the flipping things ) that I threw all my plants away.

If they are in a spare room could you turn the radiator right down? That's where mine go, and that rad only gets turned up when people stay over at Xmas!

[Bal]

I managed to over winter about 6 chilli and peppers this year. The are all fruiting brilliantly. Mind you so are the ones I bought from Ald* this year. I put some in an un heated bedroom, and some in the heated hall. all bar one survived and kept their leaves all winter.