A plain shop light will work to keep them alive, just the same as it works for seedlings. Keep it about 2 to 4 inches from the top of the plants. Also be stingy with watering. Most times overwatering will kill them more than anything else does.

I've got a couple shop lights. Sounds cheap enough to me. Really didn't want to spend money on a MH setup. Thank you!

I kind of agree with hobby. I have overwintered peppers several winters. I have not really found that they produce a significant increase in peppers the second year or third year. I did it more for the fun of it than anything else. But, yes, aphids are almost a given soon after bringing them in for the winter.

Also read here: http://www.gardenweb.com/gardenweb/query/overwintering/topic=pepper

For 12 plants in 3 gallon containers, I suggest placing them in 3x4 formation and using three 4', two-tube fluorescent fixtures with T8 or T5 bulbs in the 5000K+ range.

I gotta say I'm having good success right now and early pods on several plants I overwintered, but perhaps this year's new plants should have been started earlier and it might not be such a big difference had I done things better. I plan to overwinter fewer plants than I did last year when the season ends, namely Rocotos which are often known to perform better in subsequent years.

Overwintering gets you year round fruit. Why do it? More like why not?

Hi pip nice to see you over here. Do you grow peppers too?

When you are overwintering you usually cut the trees back severely to fit them inside and limit aphids so you really don't get peppers during the winter. Overwintering helps you ripen late peppers in a short season and supposedly get a jump start and or higher yields next season. But I don't think that to be true from my experience.

Lots of differing opinions on this one!

I over wintered a few a few years ago. Didn't trim them. Didn't stop harvesting. Just sprayed them to kill the bugs. Once.

I did grow under a 1000w light though due to the citrus.

Habanero

ancho

poblano

cascabel

thai hot

How many hours a day do you leave the light on for? How much did it raise your electric bill?

Last year, my two year old overwintered chinenses where way ahead. This year they are three, and way behind, compared to their babies I grew from seed.

12 hours, $50 a month. But I had over a dozen citrus and a cacao in there also.

I fail to understand how a year old plant can be behind a new seedling. Is it because your butchering the plant when bringing indoor?

Dont butcher the plant.

Yes, I am butchering it, or as I prefer to say "cutting it back". After reading about it on various sites, I went around and around about that with folks here last year, and was a little more agressive THIS year because of some fungal problems I had. Here is a link to that year's thread. My pictures and posts are towards the end.

Previous discussions

Here is a thread about pruning.

And here's a thread called "Why Overwinter", with pictures of plants I cut back LAST year. Last September, they looked pretty amazing, but had a fungal problem. I'd NEVER had one before.

I don't know what to say besides I've never considered cutting back and I never stopped harvesting. Due to space limitations and moving across town the peppers didn't make the cut for year 2 overwintering though.

I won't spray with anything other than the organics though which we know don't eradicate the problem, so I need to cut them back. I'm surprised you would risk your citrus pip, by bringing peppers in with them, I was really worried about that myself.

Also i read that peppers produced inside during winter are lacking in flavor and full development so I thought what's the point of that and chose to cut them back.

Pip you could grow full size anchos/poblanos in there?

Wow nanelle that's pretty compelling isn't it? Big diff in appearance that's for sure.

I just went back and looked at my potted peppers and take a closer look at the overwinters.

The rocoto is the furthest behind of the five I overwintered. I guess one nice surprise when you ovwrwinter is that you will probably get an early surprise pepper which is fun. This chocolate bhut apparently ripened overnight on me.

The other overwinters seem to have way more flowers on them than the new starts but the new ones seem to be more vigorous in growth. So it full be fun to see at the end of the summer who produces more.

Those are all overwintered?

Would you be able to help me identify my pepper? It was labeled "scotch bonnet", but I have three different ones, and this one is very different in habit from the other two.

I posted about it here;

"Will the real "Scotch Bonnet stand up?"

Also, what size pots are those?

Nono just 5 of them are overwinters. But as you can see they look no different from the other ones.

I answered in your other thread.

These are 2.5 gallon and probably 5 gallon- there are different sizes. I put the smaller varieties in the smaller pots.

I've got my jalapeños, bell peppers, soon to be habeneros and pimentos in those black 2.5 gallon pots. Hope they do well.

Good luck! Make sure to have a good fertilizer regimen going, 2.5 liters might be a bit small to get a lot of bells without a good fert.

Keep everyone posted on whether you overwinter or not.

I've hit then with vigaro and I'll be doing some water soluble feedings every couple of weeks (miracle grow tomato mix). Those black containers with mulch on top aren't drying out much. I haven't watered my jalapeños in 4 weeks. Probably should have used a non-peat mix. Oh the woes of a rookie. Haha. I guess we'll see if I can have them survive the summer and take it from there.

I was wondering if I should pot up to a #5 with the bells. I still may.