Topic: Should I cloche my Chillies

[Digeroo]

I have four large chilli plants.  Covered with flowers and a few small green fruit.  Do you think I should put them under plastic to keep them warmer for the next few weeks?  I have a mini green house which will just fit over.

 Site very windy and some of the protection from the wind is beginning to thin out (peas/pumpkins).

[thifasmom]

it wouldn't hurt.

are they in the ground?

if they are once you think they are done for the season why don't you try digging them up cutting them back to withen 6" of stem and overwintering them in a cool room of your home.

[Sholls]

As has been said, it certainly wouldn't hurt.

How is the foliage looking? When the wind picked up and the temperature plummeted my 'Ring of Fire' in particular began to sulk, the heavy rain we had at the same time wouldn't have helped. They look much happier now they've dried out a bit and have some protection from the wind.

[Digeroo]

The plants look magnificent.  Lovely dark foliage.  Variety Heatwave, though fruit produced so far not like ones from previous year, much long fruit.

[Digeroo]

They are outside in the ground.  We have not had much rain recently so they are doing very well.  They look more ornamental than productive, huge numbers of flowers.  Must say that I like the thought of keeping it through the winter.  Started it off in February, so it will be nice to start from a larger beginning. 

[Sholls]

Your plants sound really healthy. :) I suspect giving them some additional protection will help them set fruit; it isn't particularly cool yet, but if they're in an exposed spot wind chill is a definite consideration.

[elvis2003]

it wouldn't hurt.

are they in the ground?

if they are once you think they are done for the season why don't you try digging them up cutting them back to withen 6" of stem and overwintering them in a cool room of your home.

can i do this with the chilli plants in the greenie? it had NEVER occurred to me that you could keep them for next year,what about peppers?

[elvis2003]

by the way,greenie is scouse for greenhouse ;D

[Digeroo]

I bought a whole set for 25p each in wyevale sale.  So would love to try and keep them over the winter.  Should they be kept moist or dry?

One of my seed grown plants is lovely.  The stems are longer than the other plants and it is more open in nature so you can see all the flowers.  Would really like to have it again.

[Digeroo]

Found this bit vague in the nitty gritty but otherwise seems useful.
http://www.thechileman.org/guide_overwinter.php

[thifasmom]

OK from what i learned on here last year (please correct me more learned ones if I'm wrong :)).

some time in autumn when your chili production drops you should cut the plant back to the main stem leaving it at a height of 6". stop watering or at the very least water fairly infrequently keep in a sunny frost free location and you should see new growth sometime in November with the possibility of new fruits late DEC.

now I'll tell you what i did last year. my two plants were loaded with fruit in the autumn and all winter i was to get round to picking the fruits to make jelly. they were watered whenever the soil got bone dry. over the Christmas i was away by family and when i returned the poor plants were well and truly neglected :-\ as in no watering whatsoever, no nothing.

sometime in January they both got infested with greenfly and out of pure laziness i continued to ignore them and didn't even get round to composting them. late Jan i think the fruit finally shrivelled and started to spoiled on the plant :-[ (gosh I'm washing my dirty linen out in public now) i did get to save a few though for the cooking pots :).

in early March the very neglected plants suddenly started to sprout new growth  :o :D. so i cleaned them up and cut them back fed the soil and started watering again. see my blog entry on what i did: http://kellasvegeplotandothermusings.blogspot.com/2009/03/i-got-everything-done.html

they have done just as well as last year and I'll be overwintering them again but promise to treat them a little kinda this time :-[ :).

PS they spent last winter in the cold conservatory, (the heater was very tempermental so it was on very spasmodically, so the room wasn't used much so it was cold most of the time).

hope this helps :) and good luck over wintering yours.

[Duke Ellington]

Thifasmom the Chilli abuser!!

Duke ;D

[elvis2003]

Thifasmom the Chilli abuser!!

Duke ;D

;
 ;D @ duke
x

[thifasmom]

Thifasmom the Chilli abuser!!

Duke ;D

 :o

the shame of it :( ;)

[saddad]

So what if I do Chilli now and then "I can handle it"...  ;D

[thifasmom]

 ;D

[Sholls]

So what if I do Chilli now and then "I can handle it"...  ;D

 :D

~~~

Digeroo, I used The Chile Man guide as my reference last year, but largely made things up as I went along. I actually think chilies enjoy a bit of abuse neglect; I had a few Prairie Fire and Apache plants that I had no real desire to keep alive and they fruited until February.  ::) (Thankfully, everything else made it too).

When the plants had finished fruiting I cut back those that were looking a bit sorry for themselves and left them by a window, giving a couple of tablespoons of water every 10 days or so.  Jalapeņo, Cherry Bomb & Ring of Fire were chopped to around 6 inches of stalk and left in their 3L pots, the Scotch Bonnet & a couple of chinense varieties were given a less radical pruning (because they still looked really healthy & I was worried I'd kill them ;) ). NuMex Twilight never really stopped fruiting, so it just had the odd dodgy looking leaf removed through the winter; I tidied up the shape of the plant in the spring.

I suspect I got lucky. This year I'm going to have to trim the root-ball of my two year old plants & put them into smaller pots... The problem is I've grown quite attached to them, so if they don't make it I'll be  :'( .

[Digeroo]

Many thanks for all your comments.  Put the cloche on, seems to have sorted out the cold weather and I have taken it off again, plants were cooking.

I shall dig up the plants and see if I can overwinter them.  Sounds as if a bit of neglect will go down well, I am good outside but not so good inside, so they will have to thrive on a good bit of neglect.