This is very exciting. I was reading about peppers the other day because it is the first time I've grown a variety other than Banana and Jalapeno. I saw " use coir pots"....ermmmmm....NOPE. My Buddy Daniel digs his up, washes them off, bashes them around and replants them....and they LIVE! hahahahahaha ( must have been someone who happens to sell coir pots). Great job Daniel. Thanks for sharing.
Mel, I'm not crazy about coir pots. I think the idea is well meant - renewable and a purpose for a waste product. They have not worked out for me. I'm not even that crazy about peat pots. My plants seem happy with reuse-able plastic or silicone. I would love to try newspaper pots. They seem perfect, in theory but I have yet to try them. The Serrano and Jalapeño are on the sunroom plant stand now. The Serrano was originally in container with that possibly contaminated soil. They are usually much more vigorous. I washed off all of the soil when I decided to overwinter it, and gave it new soil. I don't know if that will work. It has a little growth... The Jalapeño was from a normal raised bed with good soil, but it also never grew large. It looks good. Nice plump buds. I gave both some diluted plant food and water, and light. The one concern is, my sunroom is a bit too cool. They are on warming mats. It's all a learning process. Like most life.
The four plants that I'm waking up, look pretty good so far. Serrano Jalapeño Tabasco The other Tabasco. It had leaves, all winter long. I'll post later about the ones I haven't started to awaken yet.
Won't this be so so interesting to see if they recover from their slumber and bounce out flowers much earlier than a seed start.
Here are the other four. I have not started giving them more water or moved them to a warmer place yet. The banana pepper died. The cayenne, earlier the most vigorous, has shoots that shrivel. It did have aphids again. I tried a more powerful spray this time, I don't like doing that, but it is labeled for vegetables so I guess it's OK. The other two are Thai peppers. They look a little worse for wear, but still alive. My space under lights and on warming mat is limited. I might move one or two more to that space, soon, and see what happens.
We are now down to three healthy appearing, and three that don't look so good. Jalapeño Tabasco Tabasco The main issue has been aphids, and my ham-handed treatment of them. There were bursts of growth on then next three, then aphids. The "non-toxic" sprays didn't work. Then I tried a Sevin spray - something I almost never even consider. That killed the aphids and all of the new growth as well. Cayenne. Might still recover. Serrano. I think this one is not going to make it. Thai. I think this won't make it either. Now I'm using a burst of water spray for all aphids that I see. That needs to be done twice daily. I decided to add foliar feeding - concentration (very dilute) of plant food to the spray, to help the plants. It doesn't seem to be hurting. I'll continue trying with those sad looking ones, too.
Still Daniel, yes there were a couple of disappoints…but mate— you had impressive successes. Honestly. I do not know when I will need to grow peppers again, but I certainly plan to try and find your how-to postings. When will these survivors be able to go outside?
For aphid control, we use a few drops of the blue (original) Dawn dish detergent in a 16 oz. spray bottle, then fill the bottle with warm water and spray the plants, both top and bottom of the leaves. Check the next day and if needed, re-apply. If you need to reapply, leaving the Dawn/water spray bottle on a kitchen counter will let the water be warm enough.
Another update on the chili pepper overwintering experiment. The Jalapeño is really looking nice. It has lots of flower buds, and one flower opened a few days ago. The two Tabasco Pepper plants are also growing like gangbusters. The little green devil aphids are in there, but the sprays seem to control them. I have a plan to see if I can do better. Currently the plants seem unaffected and possibly happier because of the tiny bit of plant food I put in the water (1/4 tsp in 2 quarts). The Serrano Pepper plant is surprising me with new vigor. It's really starting to grow now. Aphids there too. I spray them off several times a day. But the growth is making me happy The Cayenne Pepper plant is still struggling. It's too tall to be under my LED lights, so it has to settle for being just under the sunroom roof glass. There are some little buds growing. Where there are buds, there is hope One of the Thai peppers died. The other still looks OK. When I started the foliar feeds / aphis sprays, the leaves became darker green (also true for the other peppers). Not much new growth, but there is some. For the most tropical types (Thai and Tabasco), I think the overwintering will help a lot. Last year, there wasn't enough of either to make a good batch of hot sauce. I think this year there could be. I think the others might be a big boost on seedlings, too. Now, the aphid plan. Thanks @marlingardener for the advice! But after the other spray results, I'm pretty apprehensive about using a drop of detergent. I wonder if, in my spraying, the aphids just fall into the soil, then climb back up. I don't know. So now, if they are on fairly mature leaves, I'm gently mushing them with my fingers. On the tenderest new growth, tomorrow I'll start placing a tightly woven mesh fabric bag under the plants before I spray, and see that catches the little devils.
As of today... Jalapeño. Tabasco - two plants Serrano. I thought this wouldn't make it. It's growing every day now. Thai. This was never under the plant lights, but was on top sunroom shelf for the past month. I need to wash off the whiteflies. Cayenne. I thought this was the most likely to over-winter successfully, because of its vigor. It might still start growing better. If not, I have new Cayenne seedlings as "Plan B". Weather this week is unseasonably hot - 80s F for two days. However, there are cool nights and days ahead, so I won't plant them back into the garden until mid or late May. The Jalapeño had a lot of flowers. I cut off all but two. I want it to have more growth before producing any significant amount of peppers. I also pinched flower buds off the Serrano.
