This is the first year that I have had to deal with 'bugs' on my overwintered pepper plants and they have taken their toll but none have entirely succumbed yet. I have done the soapy water thing, the crushing insect thing and the hard water spray thing. Now, I mostly just pick off the aphids when I see them, and put a water bowl in the pots to increase the humidity and scare off any spider mites.
My Fatali is doing okay. It has lost a lot of leaves but it is bravely trying to bud up and leaf out again.
My long cayenne is struggling along. It self pruned off its top last year and lost almost all of its leaves this year. Now it is sporting new aphid ridden leaves so we will see. I have noticed that over the years, the leaf size has dropped. Does this mean that it is near the end of its lifecycle?
I h ave only kept two peppers over the winter this year due to a lack of south facing window space but next year I intend on keeping some small fruited sweet peppers indoors as an experiment too. I can just see my husband's face now. I also hope to make sure there are no, absolutely no, aphids on them before I take them indoors!
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Want to know more about overwintering peppers - please follow the pepper tag for lots more links and more about my saga.
6 comments:
Darn Buggers.
I had no idea you could bring peppers inside, but it makes sense. I'm learning there are a lot of plants we grow as annuals that are perennials in warmer climates.
I heard today from my sister in Ottawa about the storm you've got coming. Oh boy, that is really, really awful :( Sounds like you're well on your way to breaking the 1970-71 snowfall record!
That was the problem I had the year I tried overwintering peppers. In the end they didn't make it anyway. One of the problems was the same bugs liked my kitchen compost waste and it meant my whole hose was full of flying insects.
My wife always tries to bring in the peppers and I have to admit I'm no help. Our problem is lack of light. I should be nice and set up some for her but I'm afraid that would only encourage her to bring in even more plants.
Your peppers look pretty good. For the first time I started pepper seeds and I hope to grow them first. Then I will think about overwintering, but sure will come and read your experiences. Thanks.
We had a problem with fungus gnats when I brought in our plants for winter. My husband looked into carnivorous plants and we got ourselves a small sundew. It works WONDERS. The number of flies went down, obviously over a period, no miracles here and our sundew thrived brilliantly.
http://www.carnivorous--plants.com/sundew-plant.html
Sorry I don't have a better suggestion for the aphids. I'd just spray my plant since it's not bearing fruit. My mom's method is to put the plant in a garbage bag, spray and close up the garbage bag for the night.
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