How To Overwinter
Most people sow seeds late winter or buy young plants in the spring, grow and harvest fruits during the summer and autumn, and then throw their plants away and start afresh the following year. However, overwintering your plants gives you a head start.
The plants will:
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Start producing fruit much earlier.
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Be more sturdy and more capable of supporting more fruit. Chillies are perennials and capable of lasting for several years.
How Can I Overwinter Chilli Plants?
Ideally, overwinter your chillies in a cool, bright room with temperatures between 10 and 15 °C.
🌡 Make sure the temperature never goes below 10 °C.
The following instructions should help you to overwinter. It is not guaranteed, however some of our customers have shown us photos of plants they've overwintered for several years!
How to overwinter...
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Pick and remove all fruit. Prune by removing up to half of the foliage.
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Nodes are like a crossroads along a pepper plant’s stem. They are important points from which new leaves and stems can grow. The long parts between nodes are simply called internodes.
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When choosing which parts of your pepper plants to prune, you want to envision how the plant will re-grow after you have pruned. The remaining nodes will be critical points for new growth.
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Prune just above the 4th node, counting from the base of the stem at compost level.
Notes to help your plants survive over the winter
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Light levels during the winter are much lower, the strength of the sun is weaker, and days are shorter.
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Chillies originate in areas of the world that don’t have winters, so it is common for the plants to become stressed by the low light levels and shed their leaves and go dormant.
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When this happens watering must be reduced, overwatering causes waterlogged compost that kills off the roots. In early spring the increased light levels should stimulate new growth, so watering should be gradually increased as the new leaves appear.
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This is the ideal time to re-pot your plant using a good quality peat-free container and basket compost.