[CH] Re: Why overwinter plants?

raincrone@juno.com
Fri, 4 May 2001 23:45:15 -0400

Meconella asked:		 
> Assuming we arent talking about an unusual variety >with hard-to-obtain
seeds, 
>  what is the benefit of overwintering plants, if any?

Well, we can't overwinter 'em outdoors here, and, true, my windowsill
plant of _siling labuyo_ is woody at
not quite 4 years old.   My windowsill Super Chile
got stunted and unproductive after a couple of years, so I ditched it.   

But the _siling labuyo_ is not undersized or unproductive at all; far
from it.   And because it's woody, it's frankly harder for my chilehead
cat to damage seriously when he takes a notion to nibble.
So I suppose the answer would be: there's no advantage overwintering them
if they don't flourish, but if they do, it makes sense to let 'em keep
doin' 
their thing.  

In my experience, though, the wild or at least nonhybrid chiles
overwinter better than some of the hybrids, especially the F1s.  African
devil and _siling labuyo_ in particular are _very_ tough and tenacious,
and also reseed themselves vigorously; they're essentially just real
useful weeds, and, like weeds, 
they have a hell of a will to survive and propagate.    

Keep on rockin', and grow wild-assed chiles :)
Rain
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