Well winter is fast approaching and the chilli plants are now past their best. After chatting to other chilli growers this year i am attempting to over-winter some of the chilli plants that did well this year dispite of the weather.
Following the guide in 'grow-it' magazine, I've cut the plants back to about six inches above the soil. Shook away nearly all of the old compost from the root system.
Repotted the plants into single large pots with new compost and added some slow release 14:14:14 feed just in case.
Put some old bubble wrap on the cold greenhouse stageing, wrapped up the pots with more bubble wrap. Gave all the chillies a final small watering then covered the whole lot up with some garden flease.
So hopefully now next year, they should get off to a head start over the seed that i'll plant next year.
nice.. i had read a similar article last month and was intending to overwinter my chillies. But by the time i got to the allotment the frost had got to the plants . So very interesting to see someone else who is on the same project...and managed to get the plants inside on time...:)
ReplyDeleteI'm hoping that I haven't left mine to late, we have had a few cold nights, but I'm sure that because they are in the greenhouse they didn't get to cool.
ReplyDeleteIt's worth a try. We have a four (or is it five?) year old chili plant that's still going strong, mind you we treat it as a house plant in winter. It produced good crops for the first two years but only gives us a few small fruits a year now. It's more of an old friend than a source of food!
ReplyDeleteunfortunately, we have a lack of space in the house, so it'll have to be the unheated greenhouse for my chillies. I have 20+ types of seeds to try next year so maybe if I get a really good chilli it'll find room inside one day :-)
ReplyDeleteGreat idea! Will have to try this next year as my eldest son LOVES chillis
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