remove lower leaves and branch?

[Dulac]

Some of my plants are shrubs, like the previously mentioned tobascos and habaneros, and some are trees, like my poblanos. The shrubs have far less water usage and wilting problems in this Texas heat, likely due to shading the containers thus keeping them cooler. That alone is reason enough for me not to trim... other than to encourage shrubbery.
 
On the flip side, I could imagine someone living in say the Pacific NW would want to trim to ensure branches and leaves don't make contact with near constantly wet ground. I don't know this as fact, just a possible example why one would find trimming a better solution for them.
 
As they say... YMMV

 
 
That makes sense. The top of the ground here dries up very quickly. That might be why my leaves don't turn yellow too often even though they often touch the ground (even get buried sometimes when it rains).

 

[Physics202]

I'm still fairly new and trying to figure out what to do myself.  This is my first real year, and I let all the small branches grow out.  I'm finding that a lot of these branches are not very strong and they either get weighted down and lay on the ground, or they grow very horizontally and invade the territory of other plants.  These branches do however produce lots of pods and add to the harvest.  So for now I'm leaving them be and trying to support them with stakes, but I think next year I would rather have one large trunk that branches off, rather than a ton of smaller branches coming out of the base of the plant.