Overwintering peppers - first fruits

Sweet Lipstick pepper

Way back in the autumn I sowed some pepper seeds, with the hope that overwintering pepper seedlings would be easier than overwintering mature plants.

They got potted up in November. The ones that lived in the Grow Dome at the start of the winter didn’t make it, but the ones growing inside did fine.

In February they needed repotting and last month one needed supplemental feeding – but all 3 plants are thriving. (In fact there’s 4, one of the ones from the Grow Dome recovered when brought inside, but it’s still quite small.)

Sweet Lipstick pepper

The two Dedo de Mocha plants are about 18 inches tall now, and living by the window downstairs. The Sweet Lipstick is shorter, around 1 ft, but it is flowering and starting to fruit.

Considering that any peppers sown this year are still at the seedling stage, that seems to be quite an extension to the season. We’ll have to see how they carry on.

The maximum temperature in the Grow Dome yesterday was 29°C.
The overnight minimum was 7°C.

Posted 2 April 2008, 17:50.   Posted in .

4 Comments for Overwintering peppers - first fruits

  1. Crikey, that’s impressive. I sowed Dedo de Mocha mid-late Feb and although they’re jolly little fat plants, they are no higher than 3 inches. I was feeling pretty pleased with myself having overwintered a large Thai Dragon, which has kept all its leaves and is starting to sprout new ones, but at this stage it isn’t even acknowledging that flowers might be an option, let alone fruit!

    The full size plants are tricky to find room for, and its disheartening that the others (Trifetti and Pretty in Purple) I tried to keep have dropped most of their leaves, so I can only be sure about the Thai Dragon’s survival and may well be assigning valuable time and space to dead plants. I’m very tempted to have a go at this technique myself this year – look forward to seeing how you get on so thanks for that and good luck with the crop!

    MissFuggles · Apr 2, 07:34 PM

  2. Thanks for stopping by MissFuggles. I love your blog!

    Emma · Apr 2, 09:18 PM

  3. That is really impressive, mine are puny in comparison so it’ll be really interesting to see how they progress. I must make a mental note to try some late sowings this year.

    earthwoman · Apr 3, 03:03 AM

  4. If you’re interested in overwintering mature peppers, you should check out Mas Du Diable
    (http://www.masdudiable.com/A55C37/mdd.nsf/dx/perennial-peppers.htm) who is experimenting with which ones overwinter best.

    Emma · Apr 13, 12:51 PM

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