Great Gardening,
Pepper Joe
Ryan Haskell wrote:
Pepper Joe,
Hello! I'm new to the fine art of pepper growing, and started
my first
pepper garden this year. I've got about 60 plants, mostly Jalepenos and
Habaneros with a few other varieties mixed in. My first Jalepenos just
starting appearing last week!
Since I've never done this (or any gardening, really,) before, I was
wondering if you could give me some tips about bringing plants indoors
before the end of the season, which is pretty short here in Maine.
I'd like to take 4 or 5 of the best plants and put them in pots and grow
them inside during the winter. Should I prune them at all before
transplating them into pots? Do I need to "unharden" them, by bringing
them
inside for a few hours a day before finally commiting them to the indoors
permanently? What about feeding/fertilization indoors? Is there a
growing
"cycle" indoors, or will they just constantly produce peppers?
Thanks for your time, any info you can give me would be
appreciated.
Sincerely,
Ryan Haskell
Ryan,
You have some real good questions that touch on an interesting subject
that I am asked about frequently.
The peppers will overwinter fine indoors. However, peppers do not make
good houseplants so they will stay mostly dormant and be ready to
transplant to your garden in late spring after danger of last frost is
over. You do not want to prune them or shock them in any way.
Transplant them to containers and do not disturb the roots. You can
water once weekly and I'd recommend just fertilizing once during the
winter as the objective is not for them to grow but overwinter to get a
early crop the following season. Keep them in as much sunlight as
possible. Nothing wrong on bringing them out on a balmy winter day
either...just watch too much wind.
I hope that answers it for you.
Pepper Joe
"Pepper Joe Recipes" ==================== So about that "Zep" question. The Zep is a definite family favorite sandwich around here and an excellent way to enjoy those vine ripened tomatoes. We invented the zep in the 60's in our restaurant at the time in Norristown, Pennsylvania. To this day if you visit there you will still see a few sandwich and pizza shops selling Zeps. But outside of a 30 mile radius nobody has ever heard of them. They are simple to make and DELICIOUS. Here we go.
-Kaiser rolls -Cooked Salami
