Peppers are Perennials! Growing Sweet and Hot Peppers Inside During the Cold Canadian Winter

in homesteading •  7 years ago 

Most people I've met don't know this, but pepper plants are perennials! They can live for years and years in warmer parts of the world. Highly sensitive to frost, the plant will die if allowed to freeze. This is why most people consider them annuals, needing to start from seed every spring. Last winter was my first year over wintering a pepper plant in my house, and the plant is still growing strong and producing tasty jalapenos though its second indoor winter! I now have 15 pepper plants, of 7 varieties, growing and leafing out again after their fall drop. My goal is to keep them alive so that they will be able to go back outside in the summer and have very fruitful harvests.

Lets the a look at some of my plant babies!

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My kitchen table doubles as a plant table to home these three beauties. Jalapeno, Black Pearl, and Hungarian Hot Wax.

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Flower on my 3 ft jalapeno pepper plant!

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The 3ft pepper plant. This plant made a remarkable recovery, it was down to less than ten leaves when I brought it in. Happy and bushy now!

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New growth on my 2 year old pepper plant. I've been battling aphids and may have gone over board on the neem oil and soap spray, so I'm happy to see this.

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Alba Regia sweet pepper plant, seeds from @karenfoster

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Sweet pepper, on this I cut down the top growth and left two big leaves per stalk, all the little leaves are new growth!

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Mixed pepper pot, two types of sweets and a mystery hot. Another great reason to over winter your pepper plants, if there isn't enough time to produce fruit it'll definitely produce the next summer!

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Wonderfully healthy Black Pearl hot pepper plant, happily growing in a South facing window.

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Pretty purple flower on the Black Pearl

I hope these lovelies make it. I have them growing in three areas of my home, by two windows and in the basement. The basement peppers have warmth from our woodstove and a small grow light. For the most part they're doing okay! The aphids are a hassle, any suggestions out there for tried and true aphid control?

Merry Christmas everyone! I hope you enjoyed my post today :)

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I knew that tomatoes will continue to grow if brought in the house over the winter, and even continue to produce. But it had never occurred to me to even wonder about peppers. I wish I had enough south facing windows to do it myself! Great post, beautiful pictures!

Thank you! Some are in my basement with a little cheap grow light, they seem to be doing great as well. But the one by the window is def the happiest :)

Well, I think I’ll make room in my lab to over winter some peppers. :)

Do it! So much fun. So satisfying :)

Very nice!!
I actually have a pepper plant in my greenhouse that is about 3 years old! I had two, but one was killed by fire ants this summer... :/
I think it is fantastic that these plants can keep on growing like that. We generally plant a lot of things as annuals when in reality, many of them can live much longer than one season.
Thanks for sharing!!

I'm glad you liked the post :) Awesome about the 3yr old pepper plant. What type is it? I can't wait to see how long I can keep these alive!

Oooo, Im not sure! Ill have to check if by some miracle I have the tag still in there...
It is a smaller, sweet pepper. I think it had a hispanic sounding name...
Haha, now this is going to drive me nuts, Ill have to go out in the morning and check!

Let me know!

I finally remembered to check while I was out there!
The old tag was still in there and it is a 'Cubanelle Sweet Pepper'.
Still producing... 😁

Cool i'll look it up! Do you save seeds? Maybe we could do a swap sometime?

I can save some seeds sure!
Im pretty sure it is a hybrid, but it would be fun to see how they grew!

I LOVE the blossom on the black pearl!! Nice looking plants, I love how they come back all crazy and bushy when you top or prune them. Congrats on getting fruit indoors, must have excellent lighting!!

Thanks! That one is just by the window! It's pretty amazing. I love growing things! Looking forward to spring!

Yay spring!!!😁

Yassss. We're having a wind storm. No power. Bbqd xmas dinner. But at least it's warm!

Oh no way!! I am glad you are warm and for BBQ dinner but I hope your power comes on soon! When I was a kid the power went out on Christmas too and my dad wired cookie cooling racks together to make grilled cheese in the fireplace. Great memory!
Do you have an ETA on power yet?

Tomorrow morning at some point, but who knows really. The wind is supposed to keep up into tomorrow so i imagine it'll be hard to work on the lines. Might have to make coffee on the woodstove and bring it over to lyndsay in the am!

Geeze! I will be thinking of you <3 stay warm....and thats so sweet:) coffee buddies

Me again! How is the power situation??

No power at my house but it's back at lyndsays. My house isn't due to have it back until tomorrow. They have no internet at lyndsays though. I'm down at my mom's now, powers on here!

Nice post.. I am one of those people who didn't know you could keep them alive over winter...

Myth? BUSTED.

I didn't know until I tried! I didn't get any peppers off the one during its first summer so I figured it just needed more time and dug it out of the ground, and lo and behold it stayed alive and fruited beautifully.

Super cool post. I love pepper plants and I too have found that certain varieties can live for a many years. We have a small pepper about the size of a grape and is really hot. We get loads off the plants each year and then the plants go dormant until the next rainy season. We have some that are 4 years old. Thanks for sharing this knowledge about the versatility of plants.

That's wonderful :) Pepper plants are my fav, I can only handle med heat but they're so fun to grow, so beautiful and colorful. I look forward to posting about the harvests :) Do you have any advice about the aphids?

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No soup for you.

Nice & Informative

I'm glad you could learn something, that's my goal!

Your work is awesome, very nice I like it 👍😊 All the best 💯

Thank you!

That is awesome. I hope they all make it. I thought of doing this....but lighting was an issue. We have no place where we could setup or it could receive enough light.

Peace

Thank you :)Maybe one day! I am over eager and actually brought in too many plants, had to down size to this many due to lack of lighted space,haha

That is great! I didn't know they were perennials. I never thought of digging them up from the garden and bringing them inside. Currently I have on my table, and olive tree, two goji berries, and two blackberry plants (all small). Hoping to give them a headstart into spring. I'm itching to get my herbs going from seeds shortly. Looking forward to reading more great posts from you :)

Those plants sound awesome! I've been planning on starting some herbs soon too, growing things makes my heart sing and winter is just sooooo long...