Saving my Carolina Reaper

[AMKuska]

It's fall now and getting colder and colder. I have had a bumper crop of peppers, but even though it is loaded with fruit my reapers are not coloring up.

I have a frost cloth over it for now, but I would really like to get seeds and fruit from thus guy.

I should I dig him up and put him in my grow tent? Bury the roots in hay? Pick the fruit and try to Ripen it?

Any advice welcome. I usually get a pretty pathetic harvest so I want to make the most of this.

 

[flowerbug]

[-- i wrote a bit at the very end that you may want to think about before you dig up and move a plant inside --]...

it really depends upon how ripe the peppers are (aka if the seeds are developed enough).

they peppers may be green but still be able to color up in a few weeks even after picking.

i would leave them in the ground as much as you can before a hard freeze takes them out. if you want to try to bring the plant inside wait until the day before the freeze and lift as much of the pepper plant (root ball and plant) out and put it in the biggest pot that will fit. this way you disrupt as little of the root system as possible.

if you are disrupting the root system you can trim a little of the growth from the top to balance that back out and give it a good shot of water after transplanting it into the pot and filling in around the edges to get the air bubbles out. if you have a long enough season inside and it is warm enough you may see some new growth. you can use just a little fertilizer but generally i don't for peppers as they seem to do ok with what our garden soil and worms provide. i would keep an eye out for worms wanting to escape and try to give them another home (aka back outside ) as they won't stay put. that's one thing about bringing plants in is that you often bring in other things too... i guess i should put that note at the top, but what i'll do instead is write a pointer up there to down here...

 

[digitS']

Only once have I tried growing a Capsicum chinense.

It developed a single fruit there in the garden and that wasn’t even fully developed let alone ripe.

Peppers are perennials. They are survive-oriented.

Best of Luck, Steve

 

[AMKuska]

[-- i wrote a bit at the very end that you may want to think about before you dig up and move a plant inside --]...

it really depends upon how ripe the peppers are (aka if the seeds are developed enough).

they peppers may be green but still be able to color up in a few weeks even after picking.

i would leave them in the ground as much as you can before a hard freeze takes them out. if you want to try to bring the plant inside wait until the day before the freeze and lift as much of the pepper plant (root ball and plant) out and put it in the biggest pot that will fit. this way you disrupt as little of the root system as possible.

if you are disrupting the root system you can trim a little of the growth from the top to balance that back out and give it a good shot of water after transplanting it into the pot and filling in around the edges to get the air bubbles out. if you have a long enough season inside and it is warm enough you may see some new growth. you can use just a little fertilizer but generally i don't for peppers as they seem to do ok with what our garden soil and worms provide. i would keep an eye out for worms wanting to escape and try to give them another home (aka back outside ) as they won't stay put. that's one thing about bringing plants in is that you often bring in other things too... i guess i should put that note at the top, but what i'll do instead is write a pointer up there to down here...

Hmm, I would really rather not bring bugs back into my tent after the last time. I'd forgotten about that.

I do have a portable cold frame but I think the plant is too big to fit under it. Maybe I can somehow fit it over the plant and extend it's season a bit longer. Bricks maybe? There's already been a couple of frosts but luckily it's in a raised bed + frost cloth and just lost a few leaves over it.

 

[flowerbug]

cutting the plant off and bringing only it in will eliminate a fair amount of bugs and will give several more days of development too, hang it upside down. then after that the peppers will stop getting any more input from the stems so you can then pick the peppers and let them ripen.

the more peppers you get the more you can experiment with when to open the pods and dry the seeds.

i've never had too many problems getting viable seeds even by not fermenting the peppers or anything other than just drying the cores once i've cut the pepper open and eaten the outer part. the hard part though is that sometimes you don't know the inside of the pepper is molding while the outside looks fine. when you have more peppers then the chances are you will still get plenty of good seeds.

as for seed storage make sure the seeds are completely dry before putting them in any sealed containers. i don't know how long they are viable but several years should be ok.