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overwintering winter SUCKS

Ah......winter will be and gone before ya know it. I swore I saw Valentine Days cards shoved behind the Christmas cards at Hallmark...

We had a hard frost last yr. Even the compost pile looked frozen ? It killed all the bad pests and some of the good garden bugs. Although my garden was pretty free of mites, aphids and white fly..we lacked the rain that most of you had. Plenty of hose in hand watering for some folks......lol
 
It was about 37 degrees for our low yesterday. It's 57 degrees atm. All my plants are dying except for a wild one. It has some crazy cold tolerance. All the leaves are still dark green and it appears to be producing.
 
jma1787 said:
It dropped to 27F here last night. I pruned back four potted plants for over wintering. One Habanero and Cayenne will be saved for the second time. A Fatalli and Chocolate Habanero are being held for the first time.

I also have several other potted plants that set pods late and still need a few more weeks. Since it will be back up to the mid-70's in just a few days, I put 7-8 other potted plants in my daughter's play house with a 100 watt lightbulb. I then covered the play house with blankets and a freeze protection tarp I bought at Home Depot. It will freeze again tonight, so I don't know if it saved my plants or not, but it was worth a try.

More to come...
 
My little experiment worked! I managed to save my potted peppers from two nights of freezing temperatures. Not a single leaf damaged. I moved them back out to the patio and the sunshine today. The forecast for the next 10 days shows no freezing temperatures and it will climb back into the 80's this weekend. I know I'm just delaying the eventual outcome, but I really need a couple more weeks for some Fatalli,  Bhuts and Caribbean Reds to ripen. It was my first year with these varieties and I'm anxious to try them.
 
I couldn't agree more. Here's to hoping the winter is mild and the warmth of spring comes quickly. I sowed my super hot's in some cups yesterday because I want to get to growing so bad! I'm hoping that it will be warm enough here in Tennessee to start my garden by late March!
 
I don't have much problem with winter, except that when the plants are inside they drop pods on the floor and stepping on them feels like walking over charcoal with a nail between the toes. And that my sunroom resembles plantsplosion at the moment.
 
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