As summer time attracts to an in depth and the times turn out to be shorter, I all the time really feel a little bit bit wistful as I put my sizzling peppers to mattress for the winter.
Armed with a freezer filled with extra peppers than anybody can presumably eat, I’ll nonetheless miss the contemporary style of my homegrown crop.
Many gardeners deal with sizzling peppers as annuals, and easily begin new ones from seed within the winter months, able to set out when the climate warms up in spring.
I used to do that, however over time as my “pepper obsession” grew, so did my assortment of surprising varieties.
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Final season, I overwintered 38 sizzling peppers. A few of them have been small – ones I’d began too late and had solely produced a modest quantity of fruit. Others have been of their fourth yr of wintering-over.
I’ll confess, I misplaced just a few, which is to be anticipated.
Scorching peppers could be temperamental to develop, and one or two of the smaller ones merely didn’t thrive. One other, a giant, lovely habanero, appeared to undergo and solely produced small portions of tiny fruit.
He was previous, so I thanked him for his service and put “huge hab,” as I known as him, onto the compost pile. He’d survived three Zone 9 winters, and I assume he’d simply had sufficient.
On this information I’m going to stroll you thru easy methods to put together sizzling pepper crops for the winter, so if you happen to’ve bought a favourite rising this yr, you may give it a strive!
Right here’s what I’ll cowl:
Why Overwinter Scorching Peppers?
Scorching peppers are tropical and subtropical perennial species within the Capsicum genus.
They’re frost-tender and when nighttime temperatures drop to beneath 60°F and the times turn out to be shorter they’ll begin to go dormant and drop their leaves.
Temperatures beneath 35°F will kill the plant.
In tropical gardens, it’s attainable for crops to fruit year-round, when they’re supplied with the ample sunshine and heat they require.
In cooler places, with a little bit of preparation, we are able to allow them to go dormant for the winter months and in some instances, they’ll bounce again come spring, able to fruit within the heat climate.
I say “in some instances” as a result of not all crops survive the overwintering course of, for a wide range of causes.
It might be that the plant was affected by lack of diet throughout the rising season, or the temperature dipped a little bit bit too low – or maybe it took offense to your pruning strategies.
Be sure to select your strongest, healthiest trying specimens as weaker ones aren’t prone to survive.
I’ve had good success with the vast majority of my sizzling peppers, however as talked about, I count on to lose just a few. Which is why from the center of winter my develop tent is full of quite a lot of seedlings – and my electrical energy invoice is struggling.
With their mind-numbingly lengthy rising season, it might come as a shock that the “tremendous sizzling” peppers appear to be extra profitable at overwintering than a few of their much less mind-blowing brethren.
In my expertise, jalapenos usually don’t make it, however my favourite brain-melter, the ghost pepper, appears to return again flying and fruiting after a protracted day’s journey into the winter night time.
Would you wish to strive your hand at rising ghost peppers? If that’s the case, take a look at our rising information to study extra.