Topic: Storing chilli plants over winter?

[dtw]

I don't have any room in my house, will they be ok in my plastic outdoor greenhouse?
I've just put a new cover on, so there won't be any drafts.
I have an internal roof of polycarbonate sheeting for a bit of stiffness, as my cats love to walk around on it.
Will they be ok if it goes below freezing?

[thifasmom]

i think it all depends on the variety and where your mini greenhouse is, IE sheltered or up against a wall of your house to get residual heat. i haven't tried it and my glass greenhouse had frozen water in it last winter and the aubergines i tried to overwinter in it died, so i would think the chillies would succumb to the freezing temps too.

i suppose you could also try putting a few bottles/ containers of water in the house to absorb heat during the day which should release the heat back into the house during the night, it might keep the frost out :-\.

someone else is sure to put me right if I got i wrong :).

[Sparkly]

I think you would have to be pretty lucky!

[Biscombe]

The plants should go dormant, so as long as you keep the frost away you should be a winner  :)

[Vinlander]

Check out this link

www.simpsonsseeds.co.uk/shop/Over-wintering_Chilli_Plants.html

C. pubescens have a good rep - hairy plants with blue flowers that produce blocky fruits with black seeds - called manzanos or rocotos in different places and gringo killers in others...

Some people in the US say Habanero Arbol (tree habanero) are the hardiest of the C.chinensis - but that doesn't guarantee results in Blighty.

Cheers.

[BornAgainGardener]

http://www.thechileman.org/guide_overwinter.php

is a great guide to over-wintering your chillies. This year i'm to overwinter some Ring of Fire.

[star]

I would think a small unheated greenhouse might be too cold. I have a 6 x 2 polycarbonate one, and I wouldn't risk a chilli plant in there over winter.....specially now the winters seem more harsh.

I overwintered a Trifetti chilli in a cold bedroom last year, now the same one is on the kitchen windowsill.....it has started to put out young leaves already. Hmmm........maybe its too close to the sink and Ive watered it a tad too much.

On the other hand......an early start!!! ;D ;D

[Squash64]

These are my kitchen windowsill chillies today
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I'm glad they have grown so well, but there is a bit of a problem in that my windowsill is only 38" high and they are nearly at the top of it!
They are the seedlings our Bangladeshi plotholder gave me so I don't know the variety.  

The short one is also producing lots of fruit and is a much more manageable size for the windowsill.

[BarriedaleNick]

My first year trying to overwinter chillis.  Got Tepin, Early Hal and Five Colour in the spare room.  I am quite surprised that I havent killed them and they have all started to come out of dormancy - may be too warm???? The Five Colour has about 4 or 5 fruits on it..

Squash - your plants look fab!

[lottiedolly]

we are trying to overwinter some chilli plants in our greenhouse. we are heating it when it goes below 2 degrees and so far there are still leaves on the plants. we also cut the chillis back, i do not know if that is what you do, but they started producing new leaves after i done this

[Bugloss2009]

we're overwintering about 20 in the house, mostly in the vestibule, which gets a bit cool at night . A couple look like gonners (cayenne is one. think I read they were hard to overwinter). The rest are  -cut down and healthy, cut down and growing, not cut down and healthy, not cut down and growing. One that I grew from seed in July as an experiment is growing with flowers and fruit on  ;D

[dtw]

I gave up on the idea of storing them in the greenhouse, as it was making too much mess froom the falling leaves going mouldy.
I needed the space in the greenhouse to store the gardening stuff from my car boot.

Maybe next year...