For all the hand-wringing and desperation posts on all chile fora, it's really hard to kill a chile.

Exactly! Peppers are pretty damned tough...as long as they aren't overwatered or frozen.

Great job, Nick! My chiles aren't quite as leafy yet, but I've noticed the first few buds
forming. I dug mine up just a little under a month ago, and hit 'em with a mild dose of
fertilizer two weeks ago.

Josh

I'll second the over-watering thing. I killed 3 of my plants that i dug up by overwatering them once they were in pots. I have two more plants that are doing fine now that i keep tabs on the soil moisture.

Jim

Since we're on this subject...

I got some peppers overwintering right now that also went from 0 leaves to fairly leafy. Most of them seem to be rather vigorous considering they're in a window in tiny little pots and have had their roots and leaves super-trimmed only a couple of months ago. Anyway I was wondering about a problem that is just starting to show up: some of the tips of some leaves are starting to go limp and dark... it almost looks like they froze then thawed out. I am stingy with the heating in my house, but I don't think the temps in the main part of the living room ever get below say 60, and the window these plants are next to is a double-paned storm window. Are the plants getting a bit cold? Could it be not enough water (I found out that while the tops of the pots had moist soil they were dry at the bottom, so I soaked the bottoms in order to water them yesterday)? Not enough room for the roots?

Anyway, I am not trying to grow peppers inside my house, I just want these guys to survive until next May or so when I can plant them out again. :)

I can move this to another overwintering thread if you think questions like this belong there...

Hey Plantslayer

Its probably not a heat issue. My pepper plants when outdoors were thriving outdoors just fine when the temps were in 60 degree range and lows in 40's at night. And im sure they warm up quite nice in a sunny window during the day.

If yer watering sparingly and the water doesnt penetrate down into lower levels of soil were the roots are at, yes maybe they arent getting enuff water.

I water my potted windowsill bound "overwintering" pepper plants that i dug up from outdoors and did massive pruning to quite sparingly now. I water on top of soil with 3 or 4 ounces of water when soil appears dry, and also water from bottom with 3 or 4 ounces by putting water in the drain tray and letting water soak in through drain holes and a "Wick, see next paragraph"

I also use a "wick" in my potted plants. I cut shreds of old tee-shirt maybe 8 inches long by half inch wide and inserted about half of that wick up into the center of the of the pot through a drain hole by pushing it up in there with a metal skewer. The wick will soak water up into the pot if the soil is dry, and if the soil is too wet it will remove the excess water when drain tray is dryed. I have to give credit to Josh "greenman28" for telling me about this method.

Jim

Thanks, Jim!
And I have to give credit to Al (Tapla) for introducing me to wicks.
It can really offer a lot of leeway when using soils that might hold more water than one likes.

Josh