This is my first year as a pepper grower, and I'm hooked. I had a great year in the garden (hot wax, japs, cayennes, habies) and am trying to prolong the magic by overwintering some habies. Not the ones from the garden, but other seedlings I had started in July that remained in pots.

I don't have a problem -- they look great -- but wanted to see if y'all had any advice to give.

Pertinent details:

- started from seed in July (ok, not great timing)

- outside in pots until early October

- in south-facing window until late October

- since then, in basement under gro-lites on timer, ~15 hrs/day. Small fan also on timer for air circ.

- they are about 14" tall - new growth both on top canopy as well as "bushing out" along main stem

- i've been fertilizing sparingly, as per many posts I've read

- temp has been mid-60s, now starting to get to lower-60s

- huge growth spurt for the first 3 weeks after coming indoors. More recently, growth has slowed but it's been flowering to beat the band. I've been cutting all flowers off.

- had a very mild aphid problem, followed by a very mild whitefly problem. Used insecticidal soap spray a couple times and am not particularly worried at this point.

Questions:

Not sure what I should be encouraging. From what I've read on lighting, it seems that my plants are doing better than expected on 4x40W fluoro grow lights. I've read that the goal is to get them to just make it through the winter. But these plants seem a lot more vivacious than that.. should I let them try to set fruit? Should I be pruning new growth? Is the temperature a concern - expecting it will soon be mid-to-low 50s as January approaches)?

I know, if it ain't broke don't fix it. All in all, they have far exceeded my expectations. Just wanted to see if anyone had any tips or words of encouragement.

Thanks all - this forum was instrumental in making my first year a success!

Greg