Habanero peppers
A potted serrano pepper
As the gardening season comes to a close here in Vermont, some of us are just not taking it well. At all. I mean, how frustrating that our beautiful peppers are finally starting to ripen and short, cold days are just around the corner!
Peppers — just like tomatoes and eggplants — are perennial in hot zones. North of Zone 9, they’re treated as annuals. I have seen perennial tomatoes at the Edison and Ford Winter Estates in Fort Myers, FL, and also at Disney’s Epcot theme park. It’s pretty cool, they develop a thick, woody stem.
Luckily, I have two (real-life) friends in my Facebook gardening group who are experienced at overwintering peppers indoors. Before I share their secrets, let me mention why you might want to consider this approach:
- You garden in a short-season zone and would appreciate a headstart on next year’s pepper crop. Both of my friends live at high elevations that experience earlier and later frosts than their neighbors. Planting young peppers each spring doesn’t always guarantee fruit.
- You’re addicted to specific cuisines. My friend Chad cooks amazing Asian food and he’s not about to give up his Thai Devil Peppers to some snow and darkness. Living on a secluded mountain means that there is no specialty food store nearby.
Marisa pots up her small, sweet peppers (they look like Lipstick or Apple to me) in two-gallon pots and brings them indoors before the first frost. She keeps grow lights on them for 18 hours a day and waters them sparingly. When it’s warm enough, she moves the plant — keeping it potted — outside for the summer. For Marisa, this practice gets her fruit in July. Without overwintering, she saw flowers, but didn’t always get fruit.
Chad is more casual in that he doesn’t use lights. He also plants his Thai Bird peppers back into the garden come spring and digs them up in October. He noted that our friend Mike, an outstanding Thai chef, has kept a bird pepper alive for seven years and it stands 6 feet tall. Wow.
This year, count me in! I have a jungle of peppers to choose from. We all agreed that small peppers seem to work well and that if you live in a dark, arid cave (like me and Marisa,) you may need lights and perhaps a humidifier. Further, we all decided to try bigger peppers this year, just to find out if we’re wrong about the size factor. I would love it if you would join us and report back with what you learn.
I live where we get very little frost so last year I left four strong bell pepper plants in my raised beds. When the nights started to cool off I placed red plastic water towers around them (available from Gardeners Supply online) . The sun during the day warms the air around the plants and exudes the warmth during the night. I pruned the top of the plants to the top of the towers. I did feed them diluted worm tea and added some Epsom salts to the mix in late January . I had the best bell peppers from these plants this summer, abundantly more than the plants I grew this year from seed. The stalks were quite thick so did pull them out recently but I wonder what would have happened if I had left them for another year!
You would have a “tree” that can get very tall! My neighbor brought hers indoors before a short freeze and brought back out in February when it isn’t too cold here. She has a tall plant trimmed to look just like a small tree. It does get thirsty, but it produces hot little peppers. Don’t know what kind. I suspect it is a cross of a decorative hot pepper and a habanero. Some peppers are pointy and some blunted on ends so we think it is a cross. They turn orange then red.
I live in Charlotte, NC and I have a bell pepper that I have brought in for the second winter. I have a closed in porch with big glass windows so it gets pretty good sunlight, My laundry room is connected so when I use the dryer it helps heat the porch and also gives off quite a bit of moisture. It still has 2 peppers maturing that were on it before I brought it in and a few little flowers so it seems that I will continue to get peppers throughout the year, I carry it out to the garden in spring, but it stays in the pot.
My husband brought his peppers inside this fall, and so far they are O.K. I really need to get them under the grow lights, though. They are still flowering and setting fruit, but our shorter days cannot be doing much for the growth of the plants.
I used to live in San Diego where I grew chili peppers as perennial. Now in Vermont, I pot them up and bring them inside for the winter. It is snowing out, but my chili pepper plants are still flowering and setting fruits!
Thank you for your post. We bought a house 2 years ago here in Central California, the owners had an existing outdoor pepper plant. We had good harvest from it for the last 2 years. I am planning to plant sweet peppers and but will keep them indoors like you suggested.
I live in a microclime if the Sierra Foothills, zone 9a, an hour east of Sacramento. We get occasional snow at 2400 ft, the FairPlay Winery appellation is the highest wine appellation in CA.
After yes of raised beds, I’m trying container peppers/tomatoes, but never knew they were a perennial!
I so appreciate your comments and tips. It’s 80 today, and will check back later in the season.
So — so quit watering and let my pepper plant in a container go dormant after being brought inside like a bulb? Or do I try to keep it alive and green through the winter inside?
Ideally, keep it live and green through the winter. It may or may not continue to fruit and flower inside, but it will be in great shape for returning to the garden in the spring.