Need help with my peppers

[DePonzi]

I planted these from seeds one year ago they made it through the winter.
It never really gets that cold here in California so they did fine all winter
I am thinking they need to be cut back.
They look long and stringy with hardly no leaves, the leaves are small
The base looks strong . I have no idea what to do this is my first time with peppers

[PaulF]

Every plant has a lifespan. Yours have reached theirs. You can keep peppers alive by babying them, but there will be little production. It is time to pull the plants and start over with fresh seed or plants. I have kept a pepper alive in a pot by bringing it inside during the winter months, but it just hung on with no new peppers. Let them go.

[applestar]

hmm I’m not sure if that’s necessarily true —?

It depends on types of peppers. Regular bell peppers and some hot peppers belong to Capsicum anuum and as the name suggests are considered “annual peppers” but even some of those live for 2 to 3 years. Some of the other species live for longer span and undergo renewal especially if you cut them back hard.

I always overwinter some peppers and have seen them come back from literally nothing more than sticks.

Yours do look like they could be trimmed back and then be fed and babied a bit, but I guess it depends on what variety they are and how much you want to work at it. I suspect especially the hybrid bell peppers have been bred to grow and produce to exhaustion in just the one year.

[DePonzi]

Every plant has a lifespan. Yours have reached theirs. You can keep peppers alive by babying them, but there will be little production. It is time to pull the plants and start over with fresh seed or plants. I have kept a pepper alive in a pot by bringing it inside during the winter months, but it just hung on with no new peppers. Let them go.

Thanks so much for your advice

[DePonzi]

hmm I’m not sure if that’s necessarily true —?

It depends on types of peppers. Regular bell peppers and some hot peppers belong to Capsicum anuum and as the name suggests are considered “annual peppers” but even some of those live for 2 to 3 years. Some of the other species live for longer span and undergo renewal especially if you cut them back hard.

I always overwinter some peppers and have seen them come back from literally nothing more than sticks.

Yours do look like they could be trimmed back and then be fed and babied a bit, but I guess it depends on what variety they are and how much you want to work at it. I suspect especially the hybrid bell peppers have been bred to grow and produce to exhaustion in just the one year.

Thanks I will give it a try these are Jalapeño peppers

[applestar]

Good luck! I hope the weather stays favorable as they recover, but if not they may decide to enter a kind of dormancy until growing condition improves and you’ll see more vigorous growths towards fall.

When pruning, follow the “vase form” typical fruit tree style — remove weak twiggy branches and inward growing branches where they fork. Open up the middle so sun and air can reach the interior.

Look for good strong scaffold branches to support the new growths later. You are styling them into a skeletal framework.

You can cut quite a bit but no more than 1/3 total in length and volume… and don’t cut down to trunk and branches that have aged, grey and hardened bark — it’s harder for the pepper to grow new shoots from those. They can grow back more easily from last year’s summer grown branches.

Keep in mind that peppers have numerous potential new proto shoots that can sprout from each knobby branch joint. So cut just above the knobs when pruning, and be prepared to rub/pinch off excess/extra new shoots — eventually only keeping one (or two shoots if both branches had been pruned from the knob) that will grow into branch that will head in the desired direction from each knobby joint.

If you’d like a more specific pruning advice, post individual pics of the plants.