Getting a lil concerned my overwintered scotch bonnet plant won’t make it. I’ve been keeping it in my living room since November. I just moved into my new house and will be keeping it in my basement. Temperature in the basement is about 55-60 degrees. I’m worried that the deadwood will continue to spread pass the nodes and impact the healthy green part of the plant. Any suggestions on what to do to make sure the plant stay alive until I’m able to bring it outside? (I’ve already lost a few other over wintered plants due to the deadwood spreading through the entire plant). I want to at least successfully overwinter one pepper plant for this season.
by Sd0ugh
8 Comments
Put it in the ground when it warms up outside. It’ll grow like a weed.
Not sure if this is about disease / fungus. but I would cut down just above the first Y with sterilized garden shears and possibly smear the cut wound with honey to prevent bacteria etc.
I’ve had plants grow from the base of the main stem after winter. If the plant looks dead, the root system is probably still alive. Soil warm=plant grow
I’d cut the dead above the nodes and get it into a good window or buy a grow light.
Wrong soil, pot and watering. Next time Go to home depot mix kellogs garden soil with kellogs potting mix and only water once every 3 weeks when indoors. For now just water every 3 weeks and keep it where it gets sunlight (by a window)
The dropped leaves means you are drowning it 😳
I overwintered 2 pepper plants for the first time this year, and they’ve done surprisingly well. They were trimmed like yours, put into a room with lots of light, room was generally between 55-70F, and only watered shallowly(maybe half a cup to a cup of water for a 5 gallon bucket) when they were mostly dry(little tiny leaves that grew on the stem were wilting), which might be once a week.
Looks like it has been overwatered, peppers need little to no water during overwintering. I had this happen with multiple pepper plants over last few years. My go-to way to fix it: cut off all the dead branches, take the plant out of the soil, give it a good spray (try to uncover as much of the root ball as possible), cut off all dead roots and repot it into smaller pot with new slightly damp soil, if needed, cut off more roots to get it to fit into the smaller pot. Don’t water it immediately, wait a week or two and when you’ll start to water it don’t get it soaked, just a small amount to keep the plant alive. It should spring back to life in april or so (depends on where you live), when you’ll notice new leaves growing put it back into a bigger pot. I can’t give any 100% guarantees, but so far only one out 20+ plants have died after this procedure. Peppers are surprisingly resilient and the second season is usually much better and harvest comes much earlier.