Last summer I started some Big Thai Hots from seed, not really knowing what I was doing. I’m in zone 5a (Wisconsin) and they were still fairly small plants just starting to produce late last summer. I moved them indoors over winter, and recently battled a pretty icky thrips infestation that I thought was going to do them in.
Well, they’re still kicking, and producing tons of peppers! The leaves look a bit sad, but it continues to pump out peppers left and right. We finally found a house and will be moving in two weeks. I’m debating what to do with them now as I wasn’t really expecting them to survive, and they’ve grown quite tall. The shelf frame is offering support to some of the branches as well.
The plants would go outside at the new house as we’re finally heading into summer weather here. Do I:
1. Disassemble the shelving (the shelf grates slide up and off the poles) trying to disrupt the branches as little as possible
2. Heavily trim things back (this would cut off the most pepper-producing branches, but may give better growth opportunity since the lower branches are quite scraggly from the thrips)
On top of doing 1 or 2, should I repot into individual pots instead of keeping them in the single shared trough? Toss one or both of the “weakest” plants and just keep the best producer? Any and all advice is welcome—I grew these on a whim just to see if seeds would sprout, and wasn’t really expecting them to survive!
by PrancingPudu