December peppers?

Back before Halloween I posted that I was bringing some pepper plants in for the winter. It has been 5 weeks now, so an update would be in order.

The verdict: So far so good

The big bell pepper plant is over 5 ft tall in the pot; it is the only one that seems to have had a little transplant shock. The flowers that were on the plant at the time of the transplant set some peppers but they are not doing well and will be plucked off. Some of the peppers that were set have grown a little and stayed firm while slowly ripening into a beautiful red, although they are much smaller than the peppers of September off the same plant.

The next largest plant is the sole jalapeno of the garden; it is quite tall as well but it didn’t seem to suffer in the transplant. It has several peppers on it that have continued to slowly grow although I didn’t take any pictures of them (green jalapenos are invisible in the leaves of an indoor plant.)

I also brought in one of the sheepnose pimento plants; it has done ok as well and the smaller plant size seems to be more suited for transplant than the tall bell and jalapeno. It has the largest pimento specimen of the whole season on it now- about the size of a tennis ball and as beautiful a red nature can provide:

Finally, the small habanero plant that didn’t set any peppers until September is loaded with tiny orange lanterns of fire that will be the base for my pest control pepper spray next year:

The goal wasn’t to harvest peppers all winter although I’m pleased I’ll get a few along the way. The goal was to have these 4 plants survive in a semi dormant state so that they can be moved back outside in May when the nightly lows are in the 50s & above again. Starting with a large, mature plant in May ideally should significantly increase the production over the course of the summer vs with a 6″ transplant. As the shortest day of the year approaches I am encouraged.