overwintering Outdoor grower, winter is not far away.

Laphroaig

Laphroaig

Hey guys !
 
So i am an outdoor grower and the first frost is not so far away.
The first frost won't be a problem i think as i will move some plants indoor for that night or two.
But when the frost days continue my plants will die if i don't overwinter them.
 
Now what do u do with the peppers that are half way true growing, and the little ones not grown up yet ?
And the full grown peppers but still green ... ?
 
Do u pull them off and let them ripen ? (is that even possible that they ripen ?)
Or do u just eat them green and little ?
 
What do U do ? :)
 
Thanks,
peter.
 
Wow. I am glad I am not one of your plants, nightshade!
 
I live in an area that faces your same conditions, Laphroaig, and I overwinter mine. Do a search on this site and look at the overwintering article on chileman.org for lots of good overwintering info.
 
Basically, overwintering is just bringing them indoors for the winter, in pots of course. You have the choice of just bringing them indoors and keeping them like house plants (add lighting, continue water/fert as usual) or letting them go dormant. I like to let mine go dormant once the pods are all ripe, as they require less light, watering and fertilizing the way.
 
Note, though, that you can leave small pods on and let them go dormant. Then, in the spring once they wake up, they'll finish ripening the little pods. 
 
I typically repot mine in fresh soil before bringing them in, pruning the branches and roots first. A good dose of insecticidal soap can help with any hidden nasties. However, keep an eye out for things like aphids and whiteflies - they may not be visible or are dormant and will also wake up in the spring. 

Also, I wouldn't say that all green pods taste bad - here in the U.S. most jalapenos are sold and eaten green, case in point. Green pods don't taste the same as ripe pods, to be sure, but not necessarily bad. You have to decide for yourself whether you care for the flavor of a given green pod or not.
 
Powder the green unripe pods. If the powder is bitter, try to buy some red jalapeños or some other capsicum, powder those then mix them together. I powdered some green Butch T scorpions recently (from Pepperproblem`s freezer) and the flavour of the powder was good, but I mixed in some powdered Manzanos for sweetness. 
 
Overwintering isn`t the same issue for me, as we never see frost ever. I have 5 year old Jalapeños, this year was the first year in 7 that I had to grow Cayenne from seed and I`ve had Habs live through the winter for years, although they don`t usually last more than 3 years. And that is without doing a single thing to help them at all. I will be trying to overwinter plants properly, with some care, for the first time this year. Even then, we can usually get ripe pods until Christmas.
 
There is a fantastic tutorial thread on THP about overwintering, check it out if you haven`t already. Good luck!
 
Wow great info guys ! 
Thank you !
 
I am planning to overwinter a couple of plants :)
It's my first year so i hope that will work out, but i'll learn by research and doing it :)
 
And making a powder out of the non ripe pods sound like a perfect idea,
it's better then throwing it all away :P
 
Thanks again guys, now i know the END step of my first year growing peppers :)
 
If unripe pods start to turn color you can harvest them and put inside a brown bag for a couple weeks to finish ripening, an old trick that often works (just dont expect miracles).
Overwinter is really worth the efforts if you have short seasons, you'll have an head start and plants will produce much more than first year.

Good luck

Datil
 
What do you guys think of plucking the flowers and tiny peppers at this time, if you're not overwintering? Won't the plant do better at ripening the ones there?
 
Plucking blooms and tiny peppers off will give the plant more energy to divert to growing the remaining pods to full size but will do nothing to speed up the ripening of existing full sized pods.
 
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