Peppers and cousins as perennial crops time to prune

15 years ago

This could be of interest for folks who garden or have gardened in Zones 8, 9, 10 and 11.

This is the second year (even third) for a couple of my pepper beds. I had some time on the day after the first day of spring and it was really easy to tell which of my peppers were going to make it or not. I would say about 80% of the C. annum that were not transplanted will make it. I did mulch them really heavily when I went away on winter vacation. You can see the tiny new leaves sprouting in many of them. It was time to remove all the dying and browning foliage, cut all the way down to the new growth. Some of them did not show any growth, no sign of new life, just a brown stalk. I left them to hold a place for the new set of pepper seedlings growing inside. Many of these headed for the compost bin were C annum that were transplanted in their dormant stage. Very low success rate with them. However, peppers in species other than C. annum showed good recovery from transplant.

This ÂzenfulÂ pruning took me quite a while on a gorgeous spring day, and it made me think of several unique problems to this way of gardening. Not only do I have perennial peppers, but also living mulch (annual and perennial herbs) around them in many instances. This makes side dressing and adding compost a little difficult, tilling is out of the question. I can add fertilizer, but it is much easier in liquid form. I planted them in very rich soil, but this was a year ago, so a lot of the nutrients might be depleted. Several look like they are ready for another round of pepper production though, no problem.

My eggplants seem even hardier than the peppers, and required less drastic pruning. They look like they are ready to go. The okra on the other hand (I know, not a solenacea), joined the compost pile. No new growth at all. They did produce until December, so I wanted to experiment and see if they could be treated as a perennial. Not for this z9 garden anyway.

Yes, I have a tomato or two that are still around and producing. One is a cherry, but it is a F1 hybrid from a Campari (I found out laterÂ). It is OK, but it will make room for a sungold pretty soon. The other is a ribbed zapotec tomato that never produced much, so I will also take it out when I get a large enough seedling from inside. A couple of years ago though, I had some tomatoes in z10 that kept going, we liked them so they stayed with us two years.

If you keep peppers, eggplants and other solenacea (or others) as perennials, how do you take care of their fertilizing needs? Any other care we should take with our peppers and eggplants as perennials? Please share your experiences; this is hard to find in gardening books.

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Comments (12)

trsinc
15 years ago
I was just wondering the same thing, kind of. We had such a mild winter that my pepper plants overwintered this year. I've been looking around trying to see if I need to prune them or should I just leave them be. Finding conflicting answers.

As for your fertilizer, are you organic? In areas where I can't till I'll use compost tea, manure tea, and fish emulsion. FE is my favorite, but it has gotten so expensive I think I'll be switching to the teas only and see how that goes.

I've used seaweed and kelp mixes before but my plants don't seem to like them. Seems like they kind of cringe afterwards. That's my flowers, though. I've never used it on vegetables.
angie83
15 years ago
I to had peppers stay all year I cut my eggplant down looked bad but my peppers are great funny I never thought tomatoes would live but peppers are good and full and have a ton of flowers .
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pnbrown
15 years ago
You guys are in some different kinds of z9's. I have a z9 garden in florida and based on the last few winter's experience peppers and eggplant will not over-winter. Bananas get killed to the ground, tomatoes never make it.
cabrita
Original Author
15 years ago
trsinc, thanks for the info on fertilizing. I have used compost tea, and also diluted human urine (1:10). I do need some sources for P and K though, not sure if compost tea has enough.
knittlin
15 years ago
Interesting discussion ~ I'm looking forward to reading more responses about overwintering the solanums. I've yet to do that in-ground.

I can add one thing though about adding compost to your perennial herbs, Cabrita. I added fine compost (sifted) to my Greek oregano and creeping thyme by lifting what I could to put it underneath, then just putting it all over the top, then watered from above to wash it down below the leaves. I did have to pull a few of the runners out from under it, but it worked great.
ninjabut
15 years ago
Here in zone 8ish, we had tomatoes and peppers til Dec this year, then the freezes. We can over winter peppers and some tomatoes in an unheated greenhouse in pots (if they don't blow apart like mine did this year!)
Pnbrown(you might want to see a Dr about that! LOL) you say you have a garden in zone 9 Florida, but your info says that you are in zone 6.5 MA. There is a BIG difference! Which is it?
pnbrown
15 years ago
It's both, Ninja.

Those things would make it in my z9 garden with some modest protection. It seems like Cabrita is talking about little or no protection, which makes me think that there is considerable variation in z9's. The older maps show my florida location as 8b, and I think it still is, as a micro-climate. Cabrita's microclimate seemingly is a 9b. Orlando, for example, is 9b, where people often can produce pineapple.
zebraman
15 years ago
I live in Venice,CA and have had tomatoes,peppers and eggplant overwinter without any protection. I have had some acceptable results from peppers both hot and sweet.They do not produce as well as starting from seed. The tomatoes and eggplants produce nothing of value the second season.
ten_yr_plan
15 years ago
i have a cayenne pepper plant that will be 3 this spring. direct sew into garden, then liked the plant so much we dug it up and potted it. it's been a houseplant the summers outside. Last yr was a huge production yr, producing very late in the yr. Pruned it back reciently and I see tiny flower buds so we'll start new pepper very early for WI. It also is the size of a large shrub now. Do you think I'll become a pepper tree?
cabrita
Original Author
15 years ago
ten yr plan, we have a couple of peppers that are 7 years old....they are indeed like little trees. One of them is a scotch bonnet and the other one is a pequin. They are on the ground but they are not so large that one could not keep them in a large container, so why not?

Just like zones 9 are not all created equal, peppers and eggplants are not either, an I suspect there is quite a bit of variation on the success of keeping them as perennials, depending on the variety (or species for peppers). I have not noticed a decrease in production but I will keep observing. I have 3 rosa bianca eggplants that produced nicely last year so it will be interesting to see how their production compares on their second year.
zebraman
15 years ago
Hey Cabrita; You might also consider Manzanos.
http://www.ecoseeds.com/#anchor77
This site doesn't do direct links like other sites.
pnbrown
15 years ago
That's a good point, Cabrita. I easily forget that peppers are naturally perennials, so like other shrubs and trees from the sub-tropics must have cultivars of different hardiness...

Peppers and cousins as perennial crops time to prune

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Peppers and cousins as perennial crops time to prune

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