Tag: Nightshade Family (Solanaceae)

As summer draws to a close and the days become shorter, I always feel a little bit wistful as I put my hot peppers to bed for the winter.

Armed with a freezer full of more peppers than anyone can possibly eat, I’ll still miss the fresh taste of my homegrown crop.

Many gardeners treat hot peppers as annuals, and simply start new ones from seed in the winter months, ready to set out when the weather warms up in spring.

I used to do this, but over the years as my “pepper obsession” grew, so did my collection of unusual varieties.

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Last season, I overwintered 38 hot peppers. Some of them were small – ones I’d started too late and had only produced a modest amount of fruit. Others were in their fourth year of wintering-over.

I’ll confess, I lost a few, which is to be expected.

Hot peppers can be temperamental to grow, and one or two of the smaller ones simply failed to thrive. Another, a big, beautiful habanero, seemed to suffer and only produced small quantities of tiny fruit.

He was old, so I thanked him for his service and put “big hab,” as I called him, onto the compost pile. He’d survived three Zone 9 winters, and I guess he’d just had enough.

In this guide I’m going to walk you through how to prepare hot pepper plants for the winter, so if you’ve got a favorite growing this year, you can give it a try!

Here’s what I’ll cover:

Why Overwinter Hot Peppers?

Hot peppers are tropical and subtropical perennial species in the Capsicum genus.

They are frost-tender and when nighttime temperatures drop to below 60°F and the days become shorter they will start to go dormant and drop their leaves.

Temperatures below 35°F will kill the plant.

In tropical gardens, it’s possible for plants to fruit year-round, when they are provided with the ample sunshine and warmth they require.

In cooler locations, with a bit of preparation, we can let them go dormant for the winter months and in some cases, they’ll bounce back come spring, ready to fruit in the warm weather.

I say “in some cases” because not all plants survive the overwintering process, for a variety of reasons.

It may be that the plant was suffering from lack of nutrition during the growing season, or the temperature dipped a little bit too low – or perhaps it took offense to your pruning methods.

Make sure you choose your strongest, healthiest looking specimens as weaker ones aren’t likely to survive.

I’ve had good success with the majority of my hot peppers, but as mentioned, I expect to lose a few. Which is why from the middle of winter my grow tent is filled with a number of seedlings – and my electricity bill is suffering.

With their mind-numbingly long growing season, it may come as a surprise that the “super hot” peppers seem to be more successful at overwintering than some of their less mind-blowing brethren.

In my experience, jalapenos often don’t make it, but my favorite brain-melter, the ghost pepper, seems to come back flying and fruiting after a long day’s journey into the winter night.

Would you like to try your hand at growing ghost peppers? If so, check out our growing guide to learn more.