Hi Allen,

I overwinter peppers in our oversized garage (we had to build it big so I'd have room for all my gardening "stuff"), so space isn't really an issue and I don't cut them back. When I move them into the garage, I line them up in front of the third garage door so that all I have to do is open up the garage door on sunny days and they get some sunlight. This means they don't go dormant and drop their leaves until either late Dec. or early Jan.

Once dormancy has set in and the leaves drop, then I cut them back by 1/3 to 1/2. At this point, I'm not opening the door to get sunlight because (a) there's no leaves to use that sunlight for photosynthesis so it isn't necessary, and (b) it is too cold to expose them to outdoor temps.

Generally, mine stay fully dormant all of Jan. and part of Feb. and then they start leafing out and blooming. (Sometimes they start that in Jan.) At that point, I try to get them either some natural sunlight every day, or I at least leave on the garage lights (they are those long fluorescent shop lights) all day so the plants have at least minimal light.

I have them in a light, soil-less potting mix that drains very well, and I don't water them very often because they don't use a lot of water in winter. If you keep them too wet, they can die.

In a good year, blooms set any time between mid-Jan. and mid-Mar. and I am harvesting the first early, small peppers in April or May.

If you are keeping them indoors, if they have enough light and warmth, they won't even go dormant.

I haven't tried moving them directly from the outdoors to indoors inside a heated house (our garage is not heated, but it is very well-insulated), but I think if I was doing it, I'd feel comfortable cutting them back back 1/3 to 1/2 even if the bottom of the plants don't have a lot of leaves.

I consider overwintering peppers an experimental thing. All of them likely will not survive, but most will. In their native climate, they are perennials, so all we have to do is give them some protection from winter weather and we can keep them going for years here. My oldest peppers that I overwinter will be going into the garage for their third year in a few weeks.

Before you bring them inside, spray them off really well with a garden hose to knock off any insects that might be hanging out on the foliage, and then watch them carefully for aphids or whiteflies or whatever. Once they're inside, there are no beneficial insects to control pest insects, so you have to stay on top of insect issues and remove them yourself if they show up.

I don't usually have aphids or anything on my overwintered plants, but often just as soon as I move them outside for some sun on a warm winter day, aphids somehow find them. If I am patient, a week or two later, lady bugs show up to eat the aphids. How the aphids find the pepper plants in the winter is beyond me, and how the lady bugs pop up in late winter to eat the aphids escapes me too....but somehow it happens.

Dawn

Thanks exactly what i needed. Not looking to over winter all them just get a little jelous when other are talking about getting peppers early and mine are still tiny. I have a horible time with my bell pepper plants don't no what i'm doing so maybe this will help already having some established and ready to go. Always up for a good experiment.