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Posted by greencabbagepatch (U13911989) on Wednesday, 13th October 2010
Hi, i wonder if anyone could tell me (preferably with pictures or diagrams) how to prune my bell pepper plant.
i am planning on overwintering it indoors and have read that i need to take all fruit off and prune the plant, but i can't find any clear advice on how to prune it. Help!
I would prune the branches back to about 20 to 30 cms from the base.
You don't prune a Bell/Sweet Pepper plant as it's an annual....if it hasn't already died it will very soon
It is possible to over-winter Chilli Pepper plants
PS
My above advice applies to the UK as maybe it's different for growing Bell Peppers in Somalia!
Richard
Peppers are mostly perennials and I have overwintered them in previous years successfully in Glasgow. As they are very frost tender, they are best kept in a frost free greenhouse or on a sunny windowsill, when they will start flowering early in the New Year. If you do a Google search there are reports of them being kept going for 6 years.
, in reply to message 5.
Posted by greencabbagepatch (U13911989) on Saturday, 16th October 2010
thanks for the advice. i have brought them in from outdoors, taken all the fruit off, but am still unsure how to prune them. do i prune them back to leave the 'v' shape, which means they'll have no leaves on them at all. k also read that pruning the roots and repotting into smaller pots would help. any more advice?
, in reply to message 2.
Posted by greencabbagepatch (U13911989) on Saturday, 16th October 2010
thanks for the advice. i have brought them in from outdoors, taken all the fruit off, but am still unsure how to prune them. do i prune them back to leave the 'v' shape, which means they'll have no leaves on them at all. k also read that pruning the roots and repotting into smaller pots would help. any more advice?
I would tend to leave a few leaves on them. You do not say how big the root ball is. Perhaps a 15 to 20 cm pot would be suitable to get the roots into.
I would expect them to start growing and flowering once you bring them into a frost free place with good light.
realfood, I grow T&M 'jumbo' sweet peppers in a cold GH after starting the plants from seed indoors. The flowers died off and they finished cropping a few weeks ago. They were in 12" pots and nearly 4ft high.....are these similar to what you suggest over-wintering?
It's just that I've only ever heard of keeping much smaller hot pepper plants over the winter
-richard
, in reply to message 9.
Posted by greencabbagepatch (U13911989) on Monday, 18th October 2010
Hi, mine were about 3ft high and still had mature peppers on them when i brought them in. i waited for the peppers to ripen and then took them off. Overwintering mine is just an experiment, i've never tried it before, but i think it's worth a go, there's nothing to lose. i've just got to figure out how much to prune them and if it works, it will give a head start to the next crop. i'm also giving it a go with my chilli plants. fingers crossed!
Richardbees, Mine were as big as that when I cut them back to overwinter on a windowsill. You certainly get an earlier crop the next year, but it rather depends on what space you have to overwinter.
Thanks realfood, you've persuaded me and I've got enough space to try one in my heated GH next year.
richard
Does it have to be a heated greenhouse, would my unheated greenhouse do? I've no windowsill available.
I've still got three growing strongly in the new polytunnel, would they work do you think? They are full of baby peppers and we're veryproud of them! It's the first time we've grown peppers. We had to put up the polytunnel round them (and round the sweetcorn)!
Thanks, Lottie
Frost will kill peppers, so unless you live in a frost free part of the country, an unheated greenhouse will not be suitable.
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