Pepper disaster - plant broke

freddie_2

Gutted, bought a pepper plant few weeks ago, was growing great with at least 6 peppers started and another 10 or so at flower stage.

Came home on sat to discover sunflowers had blown over (in pots) and broke the pepper plant off at the graft at the base.
Have put the plant into water but it is just dying, all leafs limp.

is there anything else I can do or is is gone for good?

Really upset, was enjoying watching it growing and it was doing so well.

mrbadexample

From a previous thread, you could try grafting it back together?

mcgrow

You can try grafting it together again, but it would take maybe a month to work (if lucky) and any existing fruit on the plant would need removing. The pepper may grow roots in the water, but again, it would need to put a lot of effort into growing new roots.

freddie_2

Thanks so much. Might give this a go.
Do peppers come again on the plant or do you just get one crop per plant?

mcgrow

It's probably too late because the graft will take a while to work, easy option is to give up now and start again next year.

Difficult option is to overwinter it and let it continue to grow next year. Pepper plants are perennials in their native lands, here in the UK they are overcome by the winter. People who grow chillis overwinter their plants to get early crops, they do this by giving it a good light source and keeping it above 10°C - basically a windowsill in a warm room. The plant slows down, needs a lot less watering and look almost dead during winter. Grafting and overwintering is probably waaay too much effort for most.