[JayG]

Last year I grew two cayenne pepper plants sharing a 50cm trough on a bedroom windowsill, and they not only produced two flushes of chillies, but despite looking semi-died back they are now starting to wake up and have half a dozen new fruits on them as I write this!

Can't bring myself to dump them now - they both have a main stem about a foot high with signs of new shoots from them; each main stem then has another 12-15" of smaller stems branching out from it (most of which also have new leaves starting to appear.)

Can anyone who has deliberately overwintered chillies suggest the best way to encourage them to thrive again this year?

The two main issues are probably how much to cut them back, and whether to try to revive the old compost or empty them out and repot (although I suspect the roots will be tangled together, possibly "trough-bound", and there isn't really room on the windowsill to use a much larger trough.)

I'm a bit wary about giving them too much of a boost too early, although they do seem really "up for it" bless them! 

[galen]

I’m in my 2nd year of attempting to overwinter chillies and I’ll just provide my thoughts.

Last year I did the excepted chop back to 10cms and repot with some fresh compost, however I found I had to trim back the roots on some in order to get them back in the pots and not sure it did some of them any good – I know survival rates aren’t the best but I lost over 50%

This year I trimmed back 3 plants back in November, mainly to assist in dealing with aphids. These are now going great guns with plenty of fresh foliage and budding all along the stems

The other 6 I left alone bar getting rid of the larger leaves and these have also “exploded”. In this case as I have 2 of each variety I’m going to leave 1 of each type alone and cut back the other to see what happens. To be safe I shall also take some cuttings from each to see if I can get those to root if it all goes belly up.

All these plants are in 10cm pots, indoors on a south facing windowsill where the temperature doesn’t drop below 16c, watered sparingly once a week and fed with a liquid balanced feed every month

Just my observations on my experiments, hope it helps…  

EDIT : My usual poor spelling corrected, I hope 

[mumofstig]

I trimmed my pepper when I brought it inside, and because it had been growing in the greenhouse border it had to have a root chop to get it into a tom-size pot.
I has begun to grow a bit more now, as well.
In a while when it is growing strongly, I will prune it a bit and start giving it regular feeds.........
and keep my fingers crossed.

The smaller chillies are just left in their small pots and barely watered until the weather warms up. I've kept them for a couple of years without repotting, but they get fed/ watered regularly once they start growing again.

[Jelliebabe]

Must go and have a look at mine in the conservatory - think it may be a bit cold....   

[shokkyy]

This is my second winter of overwintering chillis, and this year's saves are looking good right now, with new growth starting already. Both years I chopped them back stem and root before repotting into smaller pots when I tucked them up for the winter. I believe the recommendation is you keep them just ticking over until the weather's warm enough for you to want them to start again, at which point you repot in fresh compost and a bigger pot and start to water more.

Some varieties are supposed to be easier than others to keep going through the winter. Last year I successfully saved Cayenne and Superchilli, and this year I've saved Superchilli (one on its second winter) and Fataalii. I think it's particularly worthwhile on the hotter chillies that need a very long season, like Fataalii. And according to the Chilli King website, the crop is supposed to get heavier each year of the plant's life.

[galen]

I can definitely vouch for a bigger crop in year two, I’ll wait with anticipation to see how many I’ll get this year, although most are given away

[Growster...]

Mrs G always keeps about 8 plants from the previous season.

She just re-pots them, gives them a prune and leaves them on a spare window sill.

[sunshineband]

Mrs G always keeps about 8 plants from the previous season.

She just re-pots them, gives them a prune and leaves them on a spare window sill.

Simple is best... it works for perennial chillis 

[JayG]

Thanks Guys!

Hoiked out the "Siamese" cayenne pepper plants yesterday, gave them a medium haircut, shook off as much of the old compost as possible, replanted them in a slightly deeper trough with some fresh compost, and put them back on the bedroom windowsill.

Thought I'd do it sooner rather than later so that if they conk out I'll still have time to sow some more this year (also wagged the proverbial finger at them and told them they've got two choices, the second one being "hello compost heap!")  

[sunshineband]

I'm sure they'll be listening to you Jay