Help needed about overextended peppers and chillies?

Started by Nora42, April 12, 2017, 22:52:52

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Nora42

Hello experts,
I have overwintered a few pepper and chilli plants at the school to see if we can't get ahead start this year. Most of the plants were attacked by white fly some are still suffering and some although they have green stems have no leaves at all. Will these plants grow new leaves and should I repot them and prune them at all? Should I give them a feed?
Any advice would be great as I really don't know what to do.
Thanks
Nora
Norf London

Nora42

Norf London

woodypecks

I dont know about peppers , but I thought I,d over winter the last tomato plant which (Cherokee purple tomato) was just still growing strong when all the other varieties  had withered away . Well , it kept growing strong all through the winter ,being careful to give it a drop of rain water every now and then ...and then just the other week completely drooped and withered in a heap ...I was just about to throw it out , when I noticed some tiny shoots coming up  :blob7: ....so  I,d say to you , carry through your experiment   . ...and let us know what happens !  Debbie   :coffee2:
Trespassers will be composted !

Hector

Nora, same here with some chilli plants. Green stem and no sign of life yet. Im watching and hoping :)
Jackie

Vinlander

Hi Nora,

Peppers, especially the commonest species C. annuum, vary wildly in their ability to overwinter - each variety is different and even if you stick with the better varieties, you will lose half or a quarter or (very rarely) none - it is a lottery which plants will survive. Quite honestly, they're often disappointing anyway -  you mollycoddle a plant for 12 months and then see it get overtaken by seedlings.

C. baccatum are generally better, but they only overlap with the best of the common ones.

Only C. pubescens (rocoto/locoto/manzano) are significantly better... if kept above 4C you will lose between a sixth (occasionally) and none (regularly). They also have an interesting flavour and the green fruits are what I'd call mild (cooler than a jalapeno) and put a delicious background glow into stews, bolognese, and casseroles. The last green ones of the season are very mild (we eat them around Xmas). Unfortunately I have to rely on them overwintering because I rarely get them to fruit in the first year, but they are big plants in their second year and you get loads.

All the other species are much more fussy, though there are some crosses out there.

Cheers.

PS. if you want them for a school greenhouse then C. pubescens are a real talking point - look them up.
With a microholding you always get too much or bugger-all. (I'm fed up calling it an allotment garden - it just encourages the tidy-police).

The simple/complex split is more & more important: Simple fertilisers Poor, complex ones Good. Simple (old) poisons predictable, others (new) the opposite.

Hector

The green stemmed Baccatum ones that overwintered are sprouting , so pleased!

Vinlander...do I trim down the older /dead looking stem?


Jackie

Vinlander

#5
Quote from: Hector on April 26, 2017, 21:33:07
The green stemmed Baccatum ones that overwintered are sprouting , so pleased!

Vinlander...do I trim down the older /dead looking stem?
I always try to trim because a trimmer plant is less likely to bump into me when I'm rearranging them. It also makes it easier to keep an eye on the ones that are on the way out (figuratively and literally) as space is limited and is needed for new stuff until mid-May.

But I always remove the properly dead bits first and gradually chop deeper into the yellow so I can stop if I see moist green inside. I also try to leave a node (and if I can a Y joint), above where the obvious green ends so it can sprout if it wants to, but if the sprouting has started you can probably skip the Y's.

Sprouts are a really good sign, but I'm suspecting that yearling plants are more prone to "stops" as so many are overtaken by seedlings in the next month or so.

It might be because the seedlings are on heated capillary mat until May (they are in 38x25x100mm trunking pots now but there's no way I can give that space to full size pots).

On the other hand, I don't see a noticeably different story if I turn the seedling heat off in April - on the rare years where the nights are mild and the whole sunroom is warm 24/7.

Cheers.

PS. Sorry if you saw the wrong dimensions earlier, I tried the smaller stuff last year but it is just too fiddly.
With a microholding you always get too much or bugger-all. (I'm fed up calling it an allotment garden - it just encourages the tidy-police).

The simple/complex split is more & more important: Simple fertilisers Poor, complex ones Good. Simple (old) poisons predictable, others (new) the opposite.

Plot 18

I just nip the tops out if they are getting too tall, makes them grow bushy.

Hector

Jackie

Nora42

thanks folks,
of course I am being laughed at by the teachers - "what are these sticks" they ask with glee. well I'm going in over the weekend to repot with fresh compost and give them a trim and see what happens, nothing ventured nothing gained as they say. what's annoying me more is all the labels have been misplaced so our only way of knowing what these plants are is to try to get them to fruit.
but it can't be all bad the parsley seeds have germinated.........
Nora

and the tile of this post should have read overwintered bloody predictive text!
Norf London

Hector

Nora...I really really want your "sticks" to flourish to silence the unbelievers :)
Jackie

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