Overwintering chillies

Most people think chillies are annuals, which means they grow, flower, fruit then die.

Chillies are in fact perennials, meaning that if you can keep them alive over winter protecting them from frosts, they'll survive and in fact give you a head start for the new season.

The above is an Asian Birdseye in one of the garden beds that I cut down about a week ago, but it's now sprouted and hopefully will go nuts in the next few weeks as the weather starts to warm up. There is another 14 plants in that garden bed that seem to have survived and have all sprouted.

I grew these from my own seeds, and I have a theory that because I took the seeds from a pod that has already grown in the Melbourne climate seem to be more likely survive our winter.

This one is more of a surprise as it's one of my Bhut's, which are from the Capsicum Chinense family and not really known to survive our winter. Again, this along with another 7 plants in the front row of the garden were grown from seeds taken from previous year plants.

The majority of my other chillies have died, and as I expect this I generally grow extra plants to replace these.

Let's hope I get a head start this year with the overwintered plants, it's definitely been a warmer than usual August here in Melbourne and I expect to be picking some Asian Birdseyes in early to mid November with the way it's heading.