Overwintering Questions

 So I've just taken a look in the greenhouse, and I'm wondering what I can
get through to survive until next year.  My current thoughts for things that
could be brought into the house:
* aubergine plants - one is about 3' tall and has 3 fruit on it, I have
  others that are less than a foot tall - would any of them survive and
  stand a chance of producing next year if I brought them in before frost?
* melons - I have 1 watermelon and 2 melons that started badly and are just
  really getting going now, with long strands and flowers, but not much
  chance of getting to fruit ... would they stand a chance of pausing over
  winter and coming back?
* one pepper plant, with 1 pepper on it (almost at full size)

I've never been good at overwintering.  My mandeville has survived well, but
that's pretty much the only successful brought-in-put-back-out that has made
it.  Not even my fuschias have survived, except the chequerboard, which I
don't think I even brought in, so it must be a surprise hardy.

What's the general routine - bring in, stop watering except for a drip every
now and then to keep them alive?  Will there be enough light in a south
facing window (on the cold side of the curtains in the living room, most
likely, so cool but hopefully not freezing!)?  I could put them in the spare
room (also south facing) if they needed more warmth, but presumably I'd have
to turn off the radiator which is directly below the window.

Or am I just destined to fail, and better off starting again in Feb?

--

 

I know nothing about melons.

One thing I an sure about is that aubergine and peppers are anuals. You
can't overwinter them. Sure you can keep them longer if you look after
them, but they need sowing/planting every year. Don't think that you can
keep them, they will die. It is natural for them to die and when the fruits
of the year have ripened, they drop seeds to grow next time the climate and
conditions are right.
So, you are going to fail, not by your methods, but how nature does it.
We, as gardeners bypass all of this by eating the produce from them and
then buying more seed for next year.
I hope I have made this clear, I sometimes don't.

Baz

 
It's not what we don't know that causes the trouble; it's what we
know for sure that ain't so!

Peppers are perennials, grown as annuals in the UK.  They will
sometimes overwinter if you have the right variety and handle
them right.  There are a lot of short-lived tropical perennials
that are almost always grown as annuals in the UK.

I doubt that any of those are worth trying to overwinter, including
the ones I have omitted any references to.


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.

 

Pardon ME.
Baz

 
'Baz[_3_ Wrote:

As are aubergines.

I gave a friend a plant of "rainbow" chillis, several years ago when
they weren't all over the seed catalogues like they are now. That plant
is still going strong.




--
kay