Name: Capsicum ssp.
Temperature: Min.: ? Avg.: 12 °C
Dormancy: Yes
Overwintwring indoors:
Light: ?
Watering: Sparse, do not let dry out.
Nutrients: Feed lightly, once a month max.
Humidity: ?
Likely pests: Spider mites. To prevent: Hose all plants and other plants in proximity down well before bringing inside, dont let the humidity drop too low, remove all dead plant matter on the plant and in the pot, spray if needet.
Pretreatment: If not grown in pot dig up and pot to begin with, if temperatures are expected to fall below min.: ? temperature. Prune roots ? Prune all remaining pods, flowers and large ? parts of foilage and branches (in fact they do not need any foilage or any of the thinner branches).
Spring wakeup: Once they sprout again, slowly increase watering and fertilizing back to normal. Place putside as soon as temperatures do not drop below min. ? temperature.
Notes: Overwintwring Capsicum is difficult with some ssp.
Overwintering outdoors:
You can overwinter Capsicum outdoors if you can keep temperatures from falling below min. ? temperature.
Light: Most examples I have seen did not block light, they might not need it tho (?)
Watering: If a cold frame or anything keeps away rain water them lightly
Nutrients: As indoors or less
Spring wakeup: Return everything to normal once temperatures do not fall below min. ? temperature
Notes: Temporarely cold frames seem to be constructed by gardeners for winter. Rectangular hay balls arranged around the plants and covered with a clear glass or plastic sheet for example.
That is roughly what I recall from advice I found online. Please discuss, add and add other species.
Missing i formation:
Do they need ANY light ? A place at the window ? Is supplemental light beneficial ?
Ambient humidity ? High enough to prevent spider mites low enough to prevent rot ?
Temperature ? I suspect somewhere between 5° C - 8° C should get them through, could they go lower ?
Update on Capsicum:
I've set up a rack of CFL tubes for the Capsicum, but not all individuals are under them. I havent taken temperature readings in the place yet. Recent observations are interesting: I expected early leaf loss and dormancy. What I am getting is very different, sadly I lack sample sizes of each breed to be able to attribute differences to a breed, plus not all are in exact same conditions. Some are still vigorous and even producing (flowering stopped after I've cut all off), some stalled, some die back branchwise and some have wilting leaves on otherwise intact branches. All seem to require more watering than predicted and some even look like in need for nutrients. I've taken pictures of noteworthy examples. (Pardon my ID's might be off a bit.)
Looking the worst is a bell pepper, intact branches but all leaves without exception are wilted and just hanging on.
A Fructescens/Chinese hybrid 'King Naga' is doing surprisingly well and looks like it could even need fertilizer. I must say it was probably hungry before winter. It is even producing but the pods remain small.
Aji de Sazonar looks similar to the bell pepper, healthy branches and wilted leaves but not thirsty.
Dwarf Chiltepin, very healthy, producing still.
PDN x Douglah (not sure about my ID, I've got them from a seller but never ordered and the seller doesnt freebie). Partially healthy partially dying back including branches. Will cut back dying branches once sure they wont recover. Still producing smaller paler pods.
Noteworthy but not photographed are Roccottos, they appear unimpressed and continue growing and producing full sized pods, no new flowers as of when I removed them.
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Topic: Overwintering plants (Read 5794 times)
