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Hi everyone,

I have a couple of Prarie Fire chilli plants on my kitchen windowsill that are still producing new chilli's. I'm going to try and overwinter them, so my question is, is it worth leaving the unripe chilli's on the plant? Will they eventually ripen, even though winter's just around the corner, or is this a bit of a lost cause?

Cheers,
Rob ;)

As long as you have the space for them it is not a lost cause. I dug mine up 2 weks ago and they have ripened and continued to flower. I was hoping they would continue throughout the winter and become large plants for replanting on the plot next spring.

Thanks for that. They're not big plants anyway - only about 18 inches high - so space isn't a problem. Will give it a go!

Cheers,
Rob ;)

I usually cut my indoor ones back in January / February to encourage them to bush out and flower again in the early spring. Seems to work.

Interesting Article on over-wintering here:

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

Thanks Barnowl, very interesting website.

Cheers,
Rob ;)

Last year I over-wintered an apache plant by cutting it down to a stump and leaving it on the windowsill. It faired really well and flowered early. I still have a chilli plant (unknown) flowering in the kitchen and I am planning to do the same with this one.

I've found Apache to be really reliable and the fruit is a nice dryish medium hot - pity they're an F1 and the seed so expensive.