chilly propagation initially indoors

Once things have started germinating, you take them OUT of the heated prop and grow them on in cooler, lighter conditions


Early? You're a bit behind, for chillies

Chilis are sensitive souls. I wouldn't put them in the greenhouse until min night time temperature is 5C or above. Early May, usually.

I'd germinate in your propagator now (it'll take 7-14 days), and keep them inside for a month or so.

I often think with chilies it cheap to buy the plants.
Most other things are OK.
Jimmy

i have brought my chilli/peppers seeds that have been in the propagator in the greenhouse into the kitchen windowsill as we keep getting these freezing nights,so even in the closed atmosphere of said propagator it was too cool,they now have the heat in the house and we are getting brilliant sunshine,result,two types are showing and three of the toms,i checked the max/min thermometre in the g/house this morning and it was -7deg,so i think kitchen was a good idea,i dont get many,its an age thing,senior moments etc.....

Well, yeah.

If you have a sunny windowsill, it's easy to do seeds indoors though. Start early March, put them in the gh a month later

I wonder if Rocoto (Capsicum pubescens) and C. baccatum seedlings are more hardy? My Rocoto plant survived several frosts last Autumn, as did a C. baccatum plant, the C. chinense were stone dead.

Yes, but you can't always get the varieties you want.

I agree with the comment on variety, you can buy plants later in the season, but chances are the plants available will be a limited selection with the broadest appeal, ones that most people have heard of; cayenne, jalapeno, habanero maybe. Go for seeds and there are literally hundreds, maybe thousands, of varieties for choosing.

When I first got into chilli growing I started the seeds off early January, in the propagator, but once the plants were through and potted on, the short days and lack of sun meant the growth slowed right down. When they did pick up again they weren't that far ahead of plants sown in March or April. I could have used grow lights to encourage growth, but thats more kit and expense, and besides, I prefer to go traditional.

These days, sowing mid February to early March works out best for me. The propagator is an essential piece of kit for most varieties, especially the hotter ones. Once the plants are through, I pot them on, and arrange the pots in a cool, light space, out of strong sunlight, like a north facing windowsill. I use the bedroom for this purpose, unheated. This way growth is steady, the plants develop thick stems and healthy leaves, as oppose to leggy stems and pale leaves, the result of too much warmth and poor light. I wouldn't consider the greenhouse at this stage; the plants are too sensitive to fluctuating temperatures. Unless we had a warm and early spring, I'd put the plants out May onwards.

I also prefer to grow chilli plants as biennials. I've found our growing season (as a traditionalist) to be often too short and unpredictable to get the best out of chillies in just one year. So the varieties I have sowed this year may develop enough to give me a few fruits late summer, but that would be a bonus. I am growing them with next year in mind, and likewise this years harvest will be from plants I sowed last year.

Plants in their second year start fruiting far earlier than first year ones, and the yield is usually 3-4 times greater, so well worth doing. Plus a poor, wet summer is accommodated by a two year specimen of all but the hottest varieties.
My oldest variety to date is a Thai Dragon, sown in 2010. It peaked 2011, and last year was a good harvest, but its getting woody now and I'll retire it after this year.

Thanks for your great post, very informed and helpful.

Do tell, how you manage to get the plants to overwinter without artificial heat & light? (by that I mean growlights, not normal bedroom heat/light)

I can't do it. They all turn brown and die ~ I did get one plant to come through, but then didn't fruit any better or earlier than my new ones.
Is it down to variety (I believe some are perennial and some are annual? Or are they all potential perennial/biennials?

Yeh, I tried to overwinter this year and just have sticks that have gone from green to brown and look dead and ready for the bin sadly

I've overwintered two of my chilli plants and I have two chillis and plenty of flowers on one and plenty of flowers on the other one. All I did was water when dry, kept the plants in the same place and did not prune. First year of overwintering and it seems to have gone quite well. After reading on the internet there are mixed views about overwintering but I'd definitely do it again.

Oh you didn't prune at all? Mine might of kept going if I did but all the examples I have seen they have been pruned right back

http://www.growfruitandveg.co.uk/gra...ies_63415.html

http://www.growfruitandveg.co.uk/gra...ter_23443.html

http://www.growfruitandveg.co.uk/gra...how_50990.html

Hi Two_Sheds

Too be honest there is no set-in-stone formula.

I have a few processes born of trial and error, that I implement every year, and work for my situation. At the end of a season, I prepare more plants for overwintering than I could reasonably accomodate the following year, to allow for inevitable losses during the winter period. And a dose of luck helps; a regime that worked one winter is not guaranteed to be as successful the following winter. There are too many variables.

This is a summary of what I do:

I am fortunate to have a greenhouse, which is a godsend for growing chillies naturally in our climate.
As the season draws to a close, I take a quick inventory of my existing collection of plants, and identify the best specimens for fruiting performance, and plant health. Any diseased, weak, or poor cropping specimens go on the compost heap. I leave the remaining plants in the greenhouse for as long as possible, even after they've ceased cropping, so that the natural shortening days and dropping temperatures encourage the plants to go dormant.
My greenhouse is unheated, so I regularly check the weather forecast from about October onwards, and within a few days of the first predicted significant frost, I bring the collection indoors.
My spare bedroom becomes my nursery for the winter. The radiator is turned to its lowest setting, and the door to the room stays closed, so that the temperature within remains cool but not cold, and most importantly: stable. I'll leave a window open a crack to discourage damp.
The first job is to prune the plants, so that no energy is wasted maintaining top growth. I know some people don't bother to do this, but like I say I've found it to be a beneficial step nine times out of ten. I don't cut the plant right back to just a stalk, as some websites advocate, but rather aim to cut back 50% or so. This maintains a good shape for next year, plus it allows for any dieback that may occur during the following weeks, which can then be pruned out before disease sets in. Temperature is very important, as following pruning the plant may reshoot if the environment is too warm, and that new growth will then die, further weakening the plant.
I arrange my plants on a bespoke shelf in front of the window, and above the radiator, with a piece of foil covered board behind them, to maximise the natural light.
The next most important consideration is water. The compost should be kept on the dry side side as much as possible. I gradually reduce the watering as the winter progresses, so that by mid to end of January, I'll aim to water moderately every 10-14 days. Once a month I'll add a weak dose of seaweed extract to the water. If the weather is unseasonably warm, then I'll water a bit more frequently.
From January onwards I pretty much leave them to it. I'll turn the plants now and again. Hang a couple of yellow sticky traps to cut down on gnats and whitefly. Check periodically for greenfly and rub off mild infestations. For more serious ones, the time of year and type of plant will determine whether I try spraying it or just throw it out, but I generally don't suffer too much with greenfly. And thats about it.
From March onwards I'll start adding a specialist feed when watering, such as Chilli Focus, at the recommended dosage for plants ready to flower, and turn the radiator up a notch. This, combined with lengthening days, wakes the plant up and gets it off to a good, early start.
A good way to check the health of a chilli plant, is to monitor the buds in the leaf axil marking next seasons growth. Once these start going brown, the plant is in trouble.

So to sum up, the most important considerations for successful overwintering of chilli plants, in my experience, are healthy specimens, stable, low temperature, controlled watering, and a bit of luck. I look to overwinter on average 15 plants, of which usually 9 or 10 will come back strongly the following season. For some reason plants that produce hotter fruits seem to fare better than plants producing milder, thicker fleshed fruits.

Hope all that helps!