Hi everyone! This is my first post to the forum. I have read through a few pages and I was hoping to get your expert advice. I am on my first pepper plant, and I have run into some difficulties. I apologize for the long post, but I wanted to get all the info out there in the hopes that my questions could be answered and I can get some peppers!

I bought a "Hottie" Pepper Plant from Home Depot about 1.5 months ago. I had never heard of a Hottie pepper, but the picture looked like a habanero and it was only $1.25. So I bought it, and a quick search on the web when I got home revealed that it was some sort of habanero hybrid.

OK good. So I decided to move it out of its small pot, and moved it into a pot about 5" high and 6" around and watered it every other day. I also placed the plant in the window sill to get as much sunlight as possible.

The plant grew very well for about a month, and even started to flower(!). Unfortunately, the plant got attacked by my roommates cat and many of the leaves were chewed. I clipped off the most horribly chewed leaves, but left a few because I was afraid of leaving the plant bare. Within a few days, the flowers fell off :(.

Post-cat attack, the plant has recovered and continues to grow leaves like mad. The plant started with one stalk, and now has two. The second has more leaves than the first and new leaf sprouts are pretty much all over the plant from base to tip.

The whole time I have had the plant, I have watered it almost every other day, and kept it in the window sill for a long day of sun. I believe the window faces southwest, so it gets a lot of light during the afternoon. Normal temperature in the apartment is 75, give or take 1 or 2 degrees and there was a week of 80 - 90 degree temps when my AC broke.

My questions are along the lines of if I can get some peppers out of this plant before the season ends.

1) In the forums, I have read that this could be a symptom of too much nitrogen in the soil. I planted it with soil from an old pot that had been sitting outside at my girlfriends house, so the quality of the soil is unknown. Is there something I could buy to even out the levels or to encourage pepper growth? I live within walking distance of a Home Depot.

2) Should I clip the remaining two chewed leaves? They are the biggest leaves on the plant, but it doesn't really need them any more since it has so many other leaves. I'm not sure if they are helping or hurting.

3) Is it too late in the season to hope for peppers from this plant? Should I go into damage control and try to keep the plant alive over the winter for next year? Its a strictly indoor plant, so keeping it warm shouldn't pose an issue. Any tips?

4) What peppers would you recommend I pick up next year in the spring so I can try to really grow some stuff. My space is limited to basically one window sill for full sun and small desk area for partial sun. The hotter the better!

Thank you for your time and I appreciate any help you can provide this aspiring pepper planter. :)

If I have done anything incorrectly, mods, please edit my post accordingly.

Info Card:

On Chair:

On Floor:

On Sill: