Things You'll Need:
- Plastic flower pots
- Shop light
- Shovel
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Step 1
Place your pepper plants in plastic flower pots. If your plants are in terra cotta pots, remove them and transfer to plastic pots. If your pepper plants are in the garden ground, use a shovel to carefully cut the plants out of the ground. Do this by digging up a cylinder of dirt encasing the root system. Place this cylinder (with the plant atop) into the plastic pot. If the diameter of the dirt is too wide, shave off some of the dirt until it fits comfortably into the pot.
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Step 2
Leave the pepper plant in the garden, and spray it with a strong stream of water. Do this for two days in a row. Move the pepper plant to another section of your yard, and repeat the water-spraying for another two days.
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Step 3
Move the plant indoors, to the room where you'll have your plants winter over. If all of the rooms in your home are occupied, do this in the garage or basement. Observe the plant for a couple of days to check for aphids, mites or gnats. If any exist, place the plant in the bathtub and run shower water over the plant for several minutes two days in a row.
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Step 4
Hang a shop light in the room where your pepper plants will winter over. (See resources below for a link to an ideal shop light.) Adjust the mounting chains so that the light hangs within a couple of inches above the tops of the pepper plants. Pepper plants prefer warm, bright conditions, and the shop light provides this even in the cold winter months.
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Step 5
Water the pepper plants only when the soil feels dry. Do not use fertilizer when you winter over your pepper plants. During this dormant or semi-dormant phase, they will only need water.
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Step 6
Move the plants back out to the garden when the last threat of frost has passed. Here, they can grow during the spring and summer. Repeat the winter-over procedure for your pepper plants the following fall or winter, when the first frost of the winter approaches.
