Overwintering sweet peppers and chilli's.

alexryzawlskiqBU-X4OF

Hi there, this is a bit of a success story for me as I've seen many people say it's difficult to overwinter peppers and not worth it but my experience is a bit different. I started last autumn with 2 chilli Tobasco plants and 2 corno di toro rosso pepper plants. I potted them up into medium sized tubs and pruned them back to a bout 2/3 for the peppers which was a stubby framework and just took some of the tops off for the chilli's as they were still growing well in the autumn heat in 2021. I bought them indoors and the peppers lay pretty dormant up until  the middle of February with just a few signs of re growth. On the other hand the chilli's stayed green all winter right up to now and have provided a couple of small but extremely spicy chilli's once a week.
Now since February the one pepper sort of withered and I discarded it however the other pepper has put on lots of new growth and flowers. Although the growth isn't as fresh and vigorous as a 1st year plant it has produced around 6 good peppers which are continuing to swell which is on par with what the plant produced last season if not more!
So in conclusion I think it is possible and worth a go if you have the space in your house. I think as long as you keep them watered and not allowed to dry out and they get a good feed they'll flourish.
I can only think that maybe some pepper varieties are better for overwintering than others. For example corno di toro rosso is and long slender that is sweet yet chilli shaped I guess.
Thanks for reading
Happy Growing! 

bertrand-mabel

Well done. Last winter we decided to do the same with some chillies. Most gave up the ghost but one is still in the land of living. Will be great to see if it does start to grow new growth and then flower etc.

alexryzawlskiqBU-X4OF

bertrand-mabel 

Great! 

Joyce Goldenlily

I have have also over wintered chillie plants. The main problem is where to keep them warm enough to survive. It certainly gives you earlier fruit.

Eustace

Out of the 3 chilli/pepper plants I tried overwintering last season, one has survived. It has flowers now. I put it out during the day last week; I need to bring it in for this week's cold weather.