Peppers 2023

[heirloomgal]

Lurker here. My Boldog Paprika plant set beautiful fruit, but two consecutive nights of frost sent me scurrying to harvest, even though they weren't ripe. In 3 days, I've seen little change in color. Should I go ahead and dehydrate them? Will they make any flavor contribution to my paprikash and goulash recipes in the green form? Also pictured are Habanada and Csceiscei 2074, hopefully moving toward complete ripeness.View attachment 61353

Hey @Neen5MI! I don't have a ton of experience with dehydrating peppers, but I can say that some of the peppers I picked late in the season that were still 3/4 green did eventually change to red but it took about 2 weeks. Tomatoes can get ripe in a matter of days, but I find peppers take much longer. Having a slight red blush is a good indication that they'll eventually turn red though I have seen some bells actually turn red in a few weeks from being fully green. Probably varies from variety to variety.

 

[heirloomgal]

I'm considering trying overwintering a few pepper plants this year. Have any of you ever done that?

Hey @FrannyNZooey! I've tried it, and I've also met several people who have peppers that are up to 5 years old having been brought in and out for years. Habaneros especially. Here's my 2 cents on overwintering peps. Given that peppers are often short lived perennials in the wild, the species is set up for it. The difficulty I've had is bringing them in without hitchhikers. If I were to overwinter any of my peppers again, I would gradually expose them to indoor temperatures like I do for them in the Spring, only in reverse. I've seen them get unhappy fast at that change. That unhappiness can mean immediate shock defoliation and also show itself in bugs finding them if they aren't already present. You'd have to induce a dormancy like state, in the way people do with geraniums, to get that real 'bounce' back up in Spring. Low light, very low water, low temps & a pruning. I've met people who say the overwintering isn't really worth the bother given how the plant performed the same or less than a new one, and I do wonder if this is from treating it more like a houseplant than a perennial - giving it a super sunny window, nutrients, too much water etc. Not enough dormancy treatment. Could be the pepper type as well.

The other thing I've found is that variety is the real deal breaker. Any of the standard bells, because they're pretty domesticated, would likely expire. They've been selected pretty hard for certain qualities and long life isn't one of them. But the hots, I think are a good bet. The closer to wild it is, I think the better your chances. It's a question of how much work you want to put into it. Some people swear by the overwintering technique, and I think if it's done well it's probably a fabulous method with the right pepper varieties. It's just figuring out all the little quirks to get it to be a real success, and not just a moderate one.

 

[Zeedman]

The difficulty I've had is bringing them in without hitchhikers.

That has been my deal breaker. If a plant has been outside, it nearly always will have pests on it, whether you see them or not - especially aphids and/or spider mites. Outside, those are naturally controlled by predators. But once brought inside - away from those predators - even a few can quickly multiply. Those can not only kill the plant, they can spread to other plants you might have indoors. My own experiences indicated that those infestations are nearly impossible to fully eliminate... in every case, I ended up throwing those plants outside into the snow.

C. annuum peppers are not good candidates for over-wintering, except for very short-season areas. Even then, they are better started indoors very early - before being set out. I was able to over-winter them when I lived in California, but their performance was inferior to first-year plants.

Other pepper species (C. frutescens, C. baccatum, and C. pubescens) are better choices for over-wintering. In my observation, they are better adapted to low light conditions, and slower to reach maturity. C. pubescens peppers require such a long season that in short-season areas, growing them indoors may be the only way to get ripe peppers. You would nearly always need to like hot peppers as a prerequisite before going to the trouble of moving these peppers indoors, since nearly all peppers of these 3 species are quite pungent.

 

[Zeedman]

While cleaning the "Pelso" peppers, I found they were 100% infected by the pepper squid (Squidus irritatus). Contact with their tentacles can cause intense burning, and they release choking fumes when disturbed. It was a real struggle trying to pry the eggs away from them - they play rough!!! [cough] [sneeze]

 

[Dirtmechanic]

Lurker here. My Boldog Paprika plant set beautiful fruit, but two consecutive nights of frost sent me scurrying to harvest, even though they weren't ripe. In 3 days, I've seen little change in color. Should I go ahead and dehydrate them? Will they make any flavor contribution to my paprikash and goulash recipes in the green form? Also pictured are Habanada and Csceiscei 2074, hopefully moving toward complete ripeness.View attachment 61353

Of course they will contribute. It is often a mix that makes a more interesting flavor profile anyway. Sambal Oelek may have a classic recipe but I rock it my way with the peppers my garden gives me and no one complains.

 

[FrannyNZooey]

Hey @FrannyNZooey! I've tried it, and I've also met several people who have peppers that are up to 5 years old having been brought in and out for years. Habaneros especially. Here's my 2 cents on overwintering peps. Given that peppers are often short lived perennials in the wild, the species is set up for it. The difficulty I've had is bringing them in without hitchhikers. If I were to overwinter any of my peppers again, I would gradually expose them to indoor temperatures like I do for them in the Spring, only in reverse. I've seen them get unhappy fast at that change. That unhappiness can mean immediate shock defoliation and also show itself in bugs finding them if they aren't already present. You'd have to induce a dormancy like state, in the way people do with geraniums, to get that real 'bounce' back up in Spring. Low light, very low water, low temps & a pruning. I've met people who say the overwintering isn't really worth the bother given how the plant performed the same or less than a new one, and I do wonder if this is from treating it more like a houseplant than a perennial - giving it a super sunny window, nutrients, too much water etc. Not enough dormancy treatment. Could be the pepper type as well.

The other thing I've found is that variety is the real deal breaker. Any of the standard bells, because they're pretty domesticated, would likely expire. They've been selected pretty hard for certain qualities and long life isn't one of them. But the hots, I think are a good bet. The closer to wild it is, I think the better your chances. It's a question of how much work you want to put into it. Some people swear by the overwintering technique, and I think if it's done well it's probably a fabulous method with the right pepper varieties. It's just figuring out all the little quirks to get it to be a real success, and not just a moderate one.

Really good info, thanks so much! I'm tempted to still try it as an experiment, just to kind of go through the process and see what happens. That completely makes sense that those further from domestication fare better. I've rejected the idea of bringing them into the basement. I'd kick myself if I accidentally gave some insects a cozy winter home along side us. We have an uninsulated detached garage where I was thinking of putting them. It's got at 5 windows on the three sides so ok light, but low light. Good tip on acclimating them to the indoors just like the hardening off process. I may have to get a thermometer in there just so I can see how much temperature difference there is because have no idea. Perhaps I'll just do one bell, one banana pep, and one eggplant and see what I can learn from this first go. I definitely don't want to put a ton of work into it, but if it expands the growing season here, that would be pretty cool. Hahaha, of course if they survive. If not, expectations managed here!

 

[heirloomgal]

My own experiences indicated that those infestations are nearly impossible to fully eliminate... in every case, I ended up throwing those plants outside into the snow.

Same here! Impossible. I'm going to try one plant this winter, a chiltepin, but it's getting a neem drench before it enters!

 

[FrannyNZooey]

That has been my deal breaker. If a plant has been outside, it nearly always will have pests on it, whether you see them or not - especially aphids and/or spider mites. Outside, those are naturally controlled by predators. But once brought inside - away from those predators - even a few can quickly multiply. Those can not only kill the plant, they can spread to other plants you might have indoors. My own experiences indicated that those infestations are nearly impossible to fully eliminate... in every case, I ended up throwing those plants outside into the snow.

C. annuum peppers are not good candidates for over-wintering, except for very short-season areas. Even then, they are better started indoors very early - before being set out. I was able to over-winter them when I lived in California, but their performance was inferior to first-year plants.

Other pepper species (C. frutescens, C. baccatum, and C. pubescens) are better choices for over-wintering. In my observation, they are better adapted to low light conditions, and slower to reach maturity. C. pubescens peppers require such a long season that in short-season areas, growing them indoors may be the only way to get ripe peppers. You would nearly always need to like hot peppers as a prerequisite before going to the trouble of moving these peppers indoors, since nearly all peppers of these 3 species are quite pungent.

Thanks @Zeedman , very interesting. I'm definitely going to have to start exploring varieties more. Oh yeah, if pests start going wild in the garage, for sure they are going in the compost.

It looks like I started all of our peppers indoors in mid-Feb this year, started hardening them off in mid-April and then transplanted early to mid-May. I could always start seeds earlier and transplant later? May's normally fairly cool, but this year we had a random heat wave (high 80s/low 90s a few days after transplant) which may become the norm. Who knows.

 

[flowerbug]

While cleaning the "Pelso" peppers, I found they were 100% infected by the pepper squid (Squidus irritatus). Contact with their tentacles can cause intense burning, and they release choking fumes when disturbed. It was a real struggle trying to pry the eggs away from them - they play rough!!! [cough] [sneeze]
View attachment 61356

haha! yes, i've seen those myself.

 

[flowerbug]

Mom found two green peppers today that i missed so i enjoyed them in my spaghettios.