[wolfekeeper (OP)]

I recently bought a small LED grow lamp for a 6 inch high chilli plant; my plant seems to love it, lots of chillis on it.

I've bought it inside and put it on a south-facing window ledge in the room the hot water tank is in, and there's a radiator as well, so it's reasonably warm, and gets sun and then I'm topping it up with the lamp when the sun doesn't shine as the nights draw in.

I've overwintered chillis before there, without the lamp, and they did fairly well but the lack of light in midwinter obviously didn't help. I've managed to get two sets of chillis off the plant in question this year.

What I was wondering is whether, if I keep the chilli warm and give it enough water, fertiliser and light from the LED and sunlight, whether it will carry on fruiting. Apparently you have to keep the temperature between 21C and 29C for the flowers to set, but what I don't know is whether the plant is keeping track somehow inside; has it got its own 'season'. I mean it's a tropical plant, so I wouldn't think it has seasons?

I'm just a bit suspicious, it seems a bit too easy.

[chiralSPO]

How do you go about pollinating the plant inside? I might be misinformed, but doesn't it need to be fertilized by another plant to bear fruit?

Even if temperatures don't change much, variation in the length of the day or the available water can be indicators of season that plants do perceive.

[wolfekeeper (OP)]

Chillies can be self pollinated by hand.

The plant is non photoperiod sensitive, at the very least for fruiting, and I intend to keep the day length the same anyway and water it the same.

[Don_1]

Chilli plants are short lived perennials and will usually do better in their second year than their first. Overwinter them on a sunny window sill and ensure the temperature does not fall below 10 deg. C. Reduce watering and feed with a watered down seaweed fertilizer no more than once a week.
Leaves may drop off, but that is not a problem. Your plant may go into a dormant state, so no growth or fruit.
As a perennial, your chilli plant will benefit from a ‘rest’ during the winter. Attempts to keep your plant fruiting through the winter are unlikely to be successful and may result in a poor crop next year.

[wolfekeeper (OP)]

You're not quite getting where I'm coming from. In (say) Mexico, near where Chillis come from, the temperature ranges from about 23 to 27C all year around, and the amount of light is very much more consistent.

So the Chilli plant expects those conditions, it evolved in those conditions, it doesn't really like the cold, it can survive, provided that it doesn't go too low, but it's not optimal.

Normally, even the indoor room temperature will go well below 20C, but in this case, because it's in a small, well insulated south facing room warmed by the hot water tank and the central heating, provided I can top up whatever UK winter sun we get with a modest growlight, it should be much happier.

At the moment, it's got 13 chillis and a whole bunch of new flowers on it.

I guess we'll see what happens.