Hopefully someone can better advise you on what to do next but they are definitely not dead. Even though some of that outer foliage may continue to wither and die from getting cold bit. But I still see some shiny bright green inner leaves, they are most certainly still alive. Not being from your area though, I'm not sure about what you should do from here, whether to trim them, let the damaged leaves fall off naturally, etc....

You can continue to keep them alive by covering them as the sun sets and taking it off in the morning once the sun comes up. Be sure not to wait too long, especially in your zone I would imagine temps under the plastic will rise quickly and drastically on a sunny day and you could kill your plants. I would also suggest putting an incandescent work lamp or lamps depending on the size of this pepper patch or some kind of reasonably safe heat source inside this tent down at plant level to keep them from freezing. Also, if you cover them with plastic at night, don't drape the plastic on them. You'll need to suspend it somehow above the foliage or any foliage touching the plastic will likely get zapped if temps drop to freezing. Use bamboo poles, tomato cages, long-handled tools, whatever you can find to prop the plastic up and just make a big ole' tent or tepee over them. If it's going to be windy, you'll have to find a way to secure everything and weight down the plastic around the edges.

An extra note if using lamps: in my plastic hoop house, the first couple of nights I hadn't yet hung the lamps. Instead they were essentially sitting on the ground so the bulbs were up-turned...not the safest set-up but unfortunately it was done in a hurry. Two nights in a row I came out the next morning to blown broken bulbs that had been brand new. These lamps were often used outdoors in sheltered locations with no prior problems, so it got me thinking maybe very cold condensation dripped onto the hot bulbs and the sharp temperature difference caused the bulbs to crack and shatter. Once I got them hung and the bulbs were facing down and protected from drips by the aluminum collar I had no more problems with bulb breakage.

I built a small walk-in tunnel to protect half a dozen pepper plants last year in my garden and it worked great until I forgot to turn the lamps on one freezing night. This year, I planted a larger dedicated pepper bed with 40 plants and enclosed the whole thing in a high plastic PVC hoop house I built. I have hanging work lights (the 8.5" kind with the round aluminum reflector collars) with anywhere from 60 to 125 watt bulbs hanging every 4 or 5 feet down near the plants in between rows. On near freezing nights, this is enough to keep them happy. On below freezing nights, I add the extra protection of draping sheets over the plants above the lamps inside of the hoop house, making sure the sheets are properly secured and can't come in contact with the lamps. Outside temps have gone down to 21 degrees so far this winter and they're all still producing and kicking butt in the first week of December in zone 7 here. This was experimental this year and I'm amazed at the results so far. Winters here are pretty much above freezing most nights and then will periodically dip below freezing for 2 or 3 days at a time before warming back up. We rarely see temps dip into the teens but sometimes it happens. Usually though, I don't have to run the lamps most nights so it's not costing much and I get to enjoy my summer veggies on into winter. There may be more efficient means, I haven't researched heaters very much yet. But right now this is working beautifully. I've noticed the peppers are slower to ripen this time of year and fruit is a little smaller (I'm assuming this is a combination of less daylight and colder temps) but I just harvested a basket full today of Bells, Marconi and Jalapenos and there are loads more on the way as well as blossoms still forming sporadically.

Holy cow, how'd my reply get so long!
Good luck with your peppers!

Thank you for the response. Its just a 4'x6' area of Bell Peppers. Right now I have a blanket and two of the .7mil tarps over the plants. I noticed the temp was still dropping inside the closer, so I filled three 1gal milk jugs with very very hot water, since I have no shop lights. The inside temp went from 35F to 44F and it is staying in the low 40 right now (11pm) while the outside temp is 30F and dropping.

This post was edited by NickRose on Thu, Dec 5, 13 at 2:30

Good luck Nick! I'm in Sonoma Co and we've been in the 20s overnight for the last week!Even a few teens!
Get as many milk jugs as you can and line them up against the walls of the structure.The sun during the day should warm them, or fill them with hot water like you did before. You can also run xmas lights to help a little with the warmth.
I don't think you have to worry much about it over heating with our temps at about 45*.
Good luck with this and maybe just pick them and be better prepared for next year. Nancy

For some time this morning it was 19F which is the coldest I have seen around here in San Mateo. The water jugs are working. While it is in the low 30's and high 20's it is in the low 50's and to low 40's inside the inclosure. They look worse then the picture above but a lot of leaves have died but the main parts of the plant like the stems and trunk are still green. I'm very determined to keep them a live I woke up this morning at 2am to refill the jugs.

I let the last of the peppers go this weekend. They had a good run. It's December!

Just received my row cover today. I waited until the sun was not hitting the plants to put the row cover on. Should I put the row cover on earlier. The spot where the plants are get full sun through the day until like 2pm. The Row Cover Supreme from Greenhouse Mega Store keeps the temps 6-8 degrees warmer, at least that's what the website says. The day time temps have been in the 50's and 60's I don't what to cook the plants.

I just checked and it is 38 in the covering and out side it is 36. Why is it only 2 degrees warmer. It should be 6-8 degrees warmer. I guess I will have to continue using the hot water jugs.

This post was edited by NickRose on Sat, Dec 14, 13 at 0:38

I don't think you really can overheat your vegetables with a row cover. It's breathable, unlike plastic. Many leave them on all winter and Spring, not just for frost protection but also as a pest barrier for when the weather warms up. Now if you had a heavy duty one on them for whatever reason and it's 100 degrees out you're not doing your plants any favors lol. But for temps on up into even the 70's, a row cover certainly isn't hurting anything by leaving it on even on a warm sunny day.

As to the temp difference, I am also a newbie when it comes to using row covers this winter so maybe some of the veterans can give you more answers. But I would speculate those ratings probably are what the fabric is "capable" of under the right conditions and likely depend on many variables. Some examples are what is the current soil temperature? How much sun did the surrounding soil get or was it shady that day? Is the ground wet? -- that can provide more heat release at night if it was wet during daylight hours and absorbed some heat. How much airspace is under the row cover -- is there an air space or in the case of small plants is it practically laying on the ground? How well is it secured around the perimeter? -- is it completely enclosed and battened down with no air gaps or is it just laying over the plants without being secured or tucked in at the bottom?

Also, thermometers can vary as well. I buy cheapo little $3 thermometers at Lowes and have them hung in various places, heights, interiors, exteriors, etc....to try to give me a better indication of zonal temperatures in and around my greenhouse and hoophouse structures. I've noticed that even the same brand/model thermometers sitting together on the same table can read differently, sometimes by a few degrees.

On a side note, my super awesome-o hoophouse I was raving about 1 week ago just got retired for the year thanks to a meeting that ran late and temps that dipped to 30 degrees before I could get home to turn the lamps on lol. Oops. Next year it will be thermostat-controlled to avoid this problem. The plants aren't dead but most of the foliage is going to drop so I'd say winter production is officially over. All but the lowest leaves got zapped, even though it was brief. The fruit surprisingly still seems fine so I guess we'll pick the rest and prepare to rip the plants out so we can better amend the soil for the new Spring crop. At least with the hoophouse in place we'll get a nice jump on Spring planting, probably a good month ahead of the game if not more.

I love seeing stuff like this.

Have any of you used these techniques to get things going earlier in spring as well?

I've used hoop house to extend the end of the growing season, but this coming Spring will be my first attempt at extending the growing season from the early end using floating row covers for some crops and hoop houses for others, sometimes in combination with row covers on a particularly freezing cold night. So I'll have to get back to you on my results lol. But I don't see why it won't work, I've certainly read enough posts by others who have done so successfully.

Depending on what temp zone you're in you'll likely get some variance across the country in how much time you gain by using them. Soil temps, not necessarily air temps are really the deciding factor for a number of crops to get going in the Spring. I'll be happy with a month jump but if we don't have a particularly harsh finish to winter it could be possible to gain more than that, especially the ones used over raised beds. The use of the hoop house combined with the use of black plastic on the ground surface of the bed and possibly even wrapped around the outside of the bed structure itself will help warm the soil well in advance of any regular soil left to mother nature alone. That and the fact that my seeds are started with the use of a home made light rack and are grown in my greenhouse until it's time for them to be planted should help get them decent size before going in ground.

Well I have been doing a good job at keeping the plants alive. Yes the leaves have all but fallen, but there is actually new growth. There is one plant that is all dead and black/brown but there is new growth at the bottom of the trunk.

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