Temperatures dropping, put plants indoors?

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Elmigo
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There is no greenhouse to put our plants in. The temperatures are dropping below 10°C this night, although just for one night. The other nights of the next two weeks will be 13°C to a maximum of 16°C. It also rains a lot. Would you put all your peppers indoors at the window sill or would you leave them outdoors to ripen? The peppers are grown and only have to turn red. And what about our kiwano and cucumber? The fruits still have to grow some more. Would you leave them outside?
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Primrose
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The peppers may survive one much cooler night but it will shock them slightly and could slow up the ripening process or the development of any smaller peppers on the plants. Do you have some old net curtains or asheet of light polythene you could cover them over with? Or even anchor a couple of sheets of newspaper over them ?

My cucumbers are in a garden border so will have to take their chance. if the overnight temperature falls to 10C for only a couple of hours I think they will survive.

Your Kiwano belongs in a warmer climate so I would treat it more carefully and bring it in. It would be a shame to lose it having nurtured it this far.
Elmigo
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Currently have no net curtains or anything left to cover the balcony. Tomorrow I'll put the peppers indoors as much as I can. The sweet bell peppers are known for tolerance for lower temperatures than hot peppers so they can stay outside a little longer I believe. And I'll definitely put the kiwano back indoors, you're right! There is some old cloths in a bag that I may use to wrap around the pots outside.
Westi
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Nothing will like that extreme a drop so they will all need protection! Is temp due to rise again in your area? Fleece is cheap or raid the charity shops for net curtains. Maybe move as much as you can closer to the flat's walls as bricks hold the heat & release it again. Definitely Kiwano indoors though & maybe a 1/2 hr of heating on to fool it that there is no change?
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Elmigo
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Perhaps heating is not necessary but I will put it indoors tomorrow, first thing I do. I think I found a rule for me to easily remember the kiwanos temperature tolerance! As soon as I have to wear a thicker vest or jacket, the plants need to be put indoors. When I can walk around in a t-shirt it's still safe.
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Primrose
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That sounds a pretty safe rule to follow.
Do you have any of those large black plastic rubbish sacks which you could open-up and gently slide over your pepper plants at nighttime?. They won,t mind the dark for a few hours. Of course if you had any really big transparent clear polythene bags you could could put them over the plants during daytime as well if it gets a little chilly. It would certainly protect then from a chilling wind.
Elmigo
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Is it safe to put transparent plastic bags over them? Because I have a lot of those. Like really a lot, enough to cover 10 balconies with pepper plants. Doesn't the trapped moisture make the peppers rot away?
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Primrose
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I have never used them to cover pepper plants but have on occasions used them to cover tomato plants for periods of 24 hours to protect them from blight spores when there has been a blight warning. They do get some condensation forming on the inside but if they're only on overnight a few hours to protect from falling night temperatures and then removed in the morning this shouldn't,t be long enough to cause any damage.

You could always punch a couple of small holes in the bags to let a little air circulate if you were really worried but obviously that would help to let a little more cold air in.
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Geoff
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I've started shutting the ventilators on greenhouses and tunnel at night, in fact yesterday I didn't even open them!
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