I live in a igloo with polar bears lol way up in northern Manitoba Canada. I won't see spring until May. On record, this has been the coldest winter yet. Tempature has been -45 -50 for the last two months. Brrrrr! I stopped watering the peppers for a week and all the leaves pointed strait down and curled up. I watered them last night and by morning they perked back to life! Ill try out the pollination and keep you posted;) Greatly appreciated! Ghostjuice.

Mine stay in small clay pots. I have double glass doors going to the back deck and my winter plants stay there in a large rabbit cage. I have cats so the cage in necessary to keep plants safe.... one of my stupider cats will bite habenera peppers over and over. No lights so they get pretty sick and spindly in January. Days are getting longer so I have new leaves and flowers the last couple weeks! About 3 years on these plants. I have an unused LED grow light but as long as the plants are doing okay I can't see getting that out. Didn't even know I could keep them over winter until I read about it on gardenweb a couple years back. Because of my small pot size I have to use a very very weak water soluable fertilizer. I use the "bloom" builder as it has less nitrogen.

Yes, I would try to repot during the cool evening hours but probably not critical. It sounds like you are using about a 2-3 gallon pot now and I would go up to at least a 5 gallon. 14-16" at the top. I use 5 gallon pails for most of my peppers. I would not disturb the root ball too much in hopes of lessening the transplant shock unless it is severely root bound, then you will want to spread it out a bit as the will have trained themselves to grow inside that area and will have trouble breaking out even after transplanting. You might want to keep it in the shade for a day or so if the sun is hot and intense right now. It might slow progress for a while, but the summer is still young and once it rebounds, it will go fast. Bruce

I'm resurrecting this overwintering thread because it seems to have survived the longest. Here are two very different scotch bonnets, a Grenada Seasoning, a serrano and an Aji Dulce. They were amazing this year, even after they almost died with a irrigation failure while I was away. Here they are with their new haircuts; This is a Piquillo than came back from a discarded stump. It was just the right kind of spicy and I LOVED it! I will also save seed. Here they are in their interim abodes. I will move them to a garage near a window, and I also have grow lights set up there. Six of seven survived last year; two accidently! I am emboldened and going for another year. My question is this; some say keep some leaves, some say don't. I wonder if this has anything to do with climate. Mine is hot and dry, and for the first time this year I had so excited fungus problems. I wonder if the overwintered got it started, esecialay the serrano, which remained outside, unprotected, and with leaves and fruit the whole winter. I have read a bunch online, and watched some videos, but I had to act, as it will go down to 30 tonight, whjch is VERY unusual around here, especially in November. So it might be a bit too late to ask, but any thoughts on the pros and cons of keeping some leaves?