Looking good. I am thinking I may have to do ONE. Aside from my overwinter plants anyway.
Bruce

Looking good...and inspiring me to give it a try again. What made you decide to cut them down and start the process so early? Just curious, not critical...

Heh, they're like Pringles. You can't pop just one!

Sim:
Two reasons mostly.

1) They had finished their first big fruit set and ripening with nothing else setting in the mean time. Some peppers set in waves, others set continuously. These both appear to be wave setters. The plants were also looking fairly worn out by this point as well. They needed to be pruned back to kickstart new growth anyway, and by the time they would have recovered, set new pods, and ripened it would be near the end of the season.

2) I'm growing some fall crops this year (got broccoli romanesco growing where the corn was, potatoes where my tomatoes were, and probably going to have some garlic where these peppers were, plus whatever I find at the nursery soon as the fall stock comes in). Limited grow space means I'll be re-using the same garden plot for the fall crops that will be going in over the next couple weeks.

So combination of my "well, lets give these a try just to see what they do" peppers having basically finished and needing the space for something else meant that I was fine with cutting them back early.

My Bhuts are still in the ground, as are my Butch T's. Those get to stay until it gets cool enough for frost to be a real issue. My pinot noir peppers are also ripening fruit still, so they're still in the ground as well.

The sweet red cherry stayed sickly and stunted the whole season, all the leaves fell off, and the stem was too spindly to be worth making a bonchi out of, so I just pulled it and tossed it on the compost pile.

Hi, I've never tried over wintering, wasn't even aware that I could until I stumbled across this site. I have 13 plants and am going to try to do them all, just for my own little experiment. If all fail, I have lost nothing because I usually let them die. Normally I dread winter, because it's the end of my gardening. I'm now looking forward to it, to see if I can keep my babies alive, and have a good head start next spring! Will update on my progress in a couple of months...

Rich.

EDY-
Good thinking! Thanks for the info/tips. I killed both of the ones I tried last season...What type of soil medium do you pot them up in?
Rich-
Overwintering is easy if you avoid the Aphids! I love it.

That's one thing, if I put them on my kitchen window sill, I don't want a house full of aphids. I can put them in my garage, but that means rigging up a light and buying a heater - money and hassle.

Richie - My advise would be when you get ready to bring them inside for the Winter, you prune the tops (a lot), bare root them and wash away as much of the old soil as possible, trim the roots back, and repot into smaller pots using fresh mix.

Also, pick up some insecticidal soap to have on hand for when you need it. Even with all the cleaning and repotting, there is still a pretty good chance you'll need it for something. But, if you catch them early, it's not a big deal.

Thanks tsheets, I have read a lot of posts about over wintering and insecticidal soap. What exactly is insecticidal soap, and will I be able to buy it in the UK? At the moment I use bug clear for fruit & veg. I've had a couple of aphids and 1 sort of caterpillar that munched a few holes, but nothing major, my roses were covered in the bloody things.

Richie, I have no idea if you can get it in the UK, but, I would be surprised if you couldn't. Some folks mix their own, for the small quantity I have needed I just buy it. I can get it at Wal Mart, Lowes, etc... It's pretty common around here. I believe it's just soapy water (probably with some extra stuff mixed in for uniformity/coverage) , but, from what I've read, there is a difference between "soap" and "detergent", which is what most products on the market are these days. Rather than guess, I just take the easy way out and buy it and know I got the right stuff! :-)

richie:

Google "homemade insecticidal soap." Plenty of info on how to make your own and what ingredients to use.

Her's a couple links that I found to be helpful for pest/disease control using homemade remedies:

http://faq.gardenweb.com/faq/lists/organic/2002081329023823.html

http://www.ghorganics.com/page14.html

Kevin

My bhut jolokia. Its my oldest pepper (this one is finishing up it's second season), so its a little gnarlier than the others. It'll get cut back for bonchi/overwintering again this year too. When its done making me weaponized fruit, that is. This one stays in the ground until frost time.

That's a pretty gnarly old guy! Be interesting to see what you make of him!

Hey, Edymnion,
Do you cut that back all the way to a bare stump. It looks to me like that one was cut back to about a single 6" stump last year. Last year was my first year and I cut mine back to two or three branchings up. Here is a photo of my Hot Hungarian Wax just after trimming for overwintering. It sure looks like yours came back strong after trimming it way back.
Bruce

That's almost exactly how mine look when I bring them in for the Winter, Bruce!

OK. Do you wait for a frost or do you cut them back, re-pot and bring them in before they experience a freeze?
Bruce

I don't let them frost/freeze on purpose. One time I didn't get them covered or hauled in. Some I cut back earlier than others depending if I am waiting for more fruit to ripen. I hope we still have a couple months before worrying about that!! haha!

Yup, what you did looks fine for overwintering. I'm convinced that you could cut a pepper down virtually to the ground and it would still spring back.

If you look real close at the third picture in the original post, you'll notice the bushy one's stem stops about 2 inches from the soil line. Wasn't kidding when I said I was brutal in how hard I topped it.

They'll spring right back from it, no problems at all.

Not really a bonchi, more of my first attempt at merging two different peppers together (a bhut and a regular scorpion):

Looking nice and healthy, I think. Long as it keeps doing well, I'll probably end up cutting it back as a bonchi in the end. Still watching those stems to see how well they fuse.

Can't really tell how much they have fused yet. Are they indeed "Joined" right now? And do they still have two root systems or have you cut off one of the root systems?
Bruce

The bottoms of the stems are definitely fused, not sure about the middle. And they each still have their own root systems. Wasn't trying to graft one onto the other (although I may try doing that sooner or later), and by now the roots are so intertwined they might as well be one set.

My first attempt, was one of my magical Bhuts that somehow turned into a red hab(I think) either way pulled all but 2 peppers off it that weren't red and decided to chop it... I may wire part of it but who knows if it'll grow back.

I chopped the roots and moved it to a smaller container

Awesome looking roots on it.

If you want to make a cool bonsai out of it, I'd remove that bottom branch entirely (break it off at the trunk). Looks like you've got a nice thick fat main trunk, which is perfect for this stuff. Might want to thin the branches out even more, try to get a more minimalist shape to it.

Think of it this way, whatever you leave now will the main trunk and limbs. It'll grow lots and lots of new smaller limbs when it fleshes back out, so don't worry about needing to leave lots of limbs now.

Also, watch where your growth nodes are on the limbs. Should be pretty easy to spot them, they're where the plant already has put out leaves or other stems (new stuff will sprout from the elbows of those junctions). Anything between that node and where you cut the stem will be wasted (it won't grow any new nodes along those lengths), so you can trim back to just above the nodes without any worry. Actually helps to do that, as the plant won't put much energy into maintaining stems with no leaves on them, and that makes it easier for a fungus or mold to get a foothold (which will kill the entire plant if you don't catch it fast).

All in all, just picture it right now as a dead tree as seen from a distance. Only the biggest, most important limbs should be left, the ones that make it look the most interesting. The rest you should prune back.

Again, don't be afraid to hack the daylights out of these things, they will spring back with twice the vigor they had before.

So I ended up chopping it more(too dark to photo) but most of it was cut at the nodes except the two in the picture but I removed both those...

Do you have any good.tips on building the roots up? Everything I'm finding is dealing with trees and cutting off the tap root

Thanks

-Chris

Edymnion has done some cool things with exposing roots on pepper plants. He is definitely the one to ask for that kind of information. And he was right about pruning that thing back. You could whack it off just above that first main node (V shaped branching on left side of your photo. And cut all the other branches off at the stem and it would grow back strong. I whacked a few plants last fall for overwintering and they immediately started growing back so I whacked them even further back. This year they came back strong once they got outside. Here is a photo right after I whacked one of my Hot Hungarian Wax Peppers last fall. Notice how I pruned it just above the nodes as Edymnion suggested.
Bruce

I grabbed a photo this morning after the big chop... after it sets in I may screw with the roots some more

I have another unknown Im going to chop later this fall(its a scorpion of some kind spouse to be a bhut)

{{gwi:1202447}}

That definitely looks better, and you'll be able to shape it into a nice bushy tree later on. Personally I would have chopped it back even further to right above that second split (so it would have the cool 3 pronged base and the growth nodes at the tips), but its fine the way it is. If you haven't done it before it really does feel like you're killing the plant, even though it will be just fine.

Just keep it in some shade for a couple days until it recovers, then just stick it back out in the sun with everything else. It will take a week or two of looking like its just sitting there half dead, then it will explode with new growth.

You've actually already got good roots there, and you're already doing the best thing to toughen them up, leaving them out in the sun.

Basically, just pull the dirt back away from the roots around the top but leave the ends down in the dirt. The roots exposed to the sun and air will lignify (get woody) and will slowly thicken up as they grow more feeding roots from the ends.

Its fairly slow going, will take months to really beef them up, but you've already got some nice ones on there. Just go ahead and water from a can to wash the dirt down away from them. The small feeder roots will either die back on their own or beef up on their own, so it'll do most of the work by itself for that.

Quicky update on my root bonsai, since it got mentioned here (and the other thread is becoming huge).

Its even getting some buds on it. Really late in the season to just now be getting flower buds, but I have been putting this poor thing through hell.

Thanks for the info Edymnion, the pictures actually a bit deceiving theres only two prongs just looks like a third(its actually coming of that node on the front prong)

either way I got bored(again) and decided to chop 1 of my jalapenos I had in a pot and then 1 of my unknowns

I do have other peppers that i started from seed a few weeks ago(purple flash/medusa/explosive ember) which Im going to bonsai once they get large enough

Oh yeah, just in case you haven't seen it yet:
Bonchi Guide

yup Ive read that thing a bunch

heres the other three I did today(I may do a few more by end of season) but these are all peppers that arent doing anything for me as I dont sell em at market, 2 I dont know what are and the other is an heirloom jalapeno called travelers which produces pretty small pods

{{gwi:1202452}}

{{gwi:1202454}}

Those last two are going to be sweet. One thing though, that last one has new sprouts coming out of the base around that knot hole. Pinch those off, you don't want anything growing down there on the trunk. That'll help force it to grow from the top end more.

yup they are gone(noticed after I shot the photo)

but that roots are why I decided to chop them, they are those unknown peppers I posted earlier, oddly enough my bhut clones have some really wicked roots as they were exposed but the trunks arent that think, I wont chop those until closer to frost....

the first photo(in the set or three) is the jalapeno it actually has thick roots as well but I cut to much off the bottom so Ill attempt to pull it up after it takes a bit

Hello everyone,

I was reading this thread about bonshis, and I remembered a very good website where a large section is dedicated to this subject (lots of pics).

This guy some of you surely know owns a big pepper farm (Fatalii)in Finland.

In addition to bonshis you have many more great sections and of course a very large choice of seeds as well.

Anyway here's the link, enjoy!

http://www.fatalii.net/growing/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=95&Itemid=105

@ Edy: duh, i just realized the skull/root bonchi pic I have in my head is yours :) It looks fantastic!!

@ Homefry: how were you able to pot up your bonchi with the exposed roots without having him fall over? Is he anchored into the pot somehow?

Antoinette

@hookilau

the root balls are actually bigger than the pots I put them in, I went from a #5 nursery pot to like a #2(I think) so I actually had to cut roots off to make it fit, but its just carefully places so there still in the ground, they kind of float when I watered them at first theyre set not though

-Chris

hmm. That's interesting. I have a few I'm planning to do a big chop on for overwintering & I'm trying to formulate my plan of action.

I'm kinda nervous :) Just as soon as me fruit ripens enough to pick I'll be looking to put him in a pot.

Antoinette

Just trimmed back my 3 tier cloud bonchi. The middle stalk was starting to get too many leaves on it that would have caused it's trunk to change shape. Trimmed back everything but just the tips to make the clouds out of.

cool! I was wondering what the heck bonchis were, then I searched. I used to dabble in bonsai, but the negative was they are not indoor plants (that's why people always kill them), but these can be! Maybe I should try my hand at this.
Pam

http://s13.postimage.org/6ulgrijg7/photo_59.jpg
Here are my bonchi naga morich. i have kept them in half litre cups and they seem to thrive, and produced lots of nagas

Wow, those are productive, lao. You say they are indoors? What kind of light?

Do you prune the roots or just let them bind up? What soil/growing medium?

Seems I have another accidental bonchi candidate. My Trinidad Scorpion Butch T container plant has tons of pods on it that are just starting to ripen (seriously, I planted this thing at the start of the season and its just now giving me pods, talk about a LONG grow period!). At some point it got too heavy and fell over when I wasn't looking and apparently spent a week or two on it's side before I noticed, so it has grown sideways for a while now. And look what I got out of it.

Trimmed off some (large) branches that were growing in the wrong direction:

I just might get some kind of cool sideways bonchi out of this one. Which is good, because it'll mean I'll have a bhut bonchi, a butch T bonchi, and a douglah bonchi, all ready to get an early jump on next year.

I don't know what I'm going to do with it yet, but I found a decoration that was just too awesome to pass up. Maybe I should really stop walking through the aquarium section at the store, but come on...

Its rather flat though, with that ledge over the statue's head. Would make growing something over it like I did with the mountain difficult. Maybe I can find something else (like a broken column) to actually grow the pepper over, and just have that in the background. Spread some sugar sand over the top of the dirt when I'm done to make a nice pepper tree in the desert diorama out of it.

Root it behind the wall, then bring the stem out between the column and statue.

Ha, knew I'd find something if I kept my eyes open.

Sounds like you need to be growing fish peppers. ;-) ;-)

I'm starting to think I just have a thing for bonchis shaped like hands.

Thats my bhut I overwintered last year as a straight trunk. Now its a hand.

Its being a little slow to recover, what with the cooler weather and all, but its still alive.