potted pepper plant (growing, tomatoes, spring, peppers)

[Dr.drew]

Hello. I live in northern Minnesota. The growing season where I live is about done now because we start getting below freezing temperatures up here at night.

I have a couple dozen pepper plants in my garden, some jalapenos, bell peppers, and banana peppers. I started them in the house during the last part of march. About a month later, I repotted them into little pots about the size of a pop can so I could set them outside in the sun during the day. I did this with the peppers and tomatoes and it worked really well. We have to worry about frost until early June, which is when I planted everything in the garden outside.

All of my pepper plants grew really well in the garden all this summer. Most of them didn't start producing peppers until about a month ago. I got a few little peppers off a few of the plants, and some of them have only started to flower. The growing season is basically done now because we are going to start getting below freezing temperatures up here now.

During the last few days, I have been digging my pepper plants out of the garden and transplanting them into pots. I put some dirt in the bottom of the pot. Then I dig up the plant, and bury the roots and a few inches of the stem in dirt. This way I figured that I can set them outside during the day to get the sun, and then bring them in at night so they don't freeze. I started a few days ago, and transplanting a few per day. The plants have responded well so far to being transplanted, and haven't really shown any trauma from being dug up and moved. I have been transplanting them early enough in the day so they can be outside while they get used to the pots.

Has anyone done this before? I have heard that under the right conditions, pepper plants can stay alive for a couple years. I'm hoping to at least keep them alive for a couple months by setting them outside so I can get a couple extra peppers. I would really like to keep them alive all winter so I can replant them back in the garden in the spring. Any input would be appreciated.