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How old can a pepper plant get?

Geist

Geist

How old can a pepper plant get?
How long have you been able to keep the same plant?

This question occurred to be after reading the fatali bonchi guide. Is there an age limit before they eventually just die off or could you really keep a pepper plant alive for decades or something crazy?
 
Goatsweed is my longest living pepper plant, 4 years is my max, i am striving for 5 with my current. i have a habanero entering its 3rd year.
i have a tepin entering its 3rd year
 
I've heard of chiltepin plants living 20-30 years old but personally I've only had up to 5 or 6 year old plants
 
I think once they reach a certain age, they slow down their production of pods. You can keep them going for a while but it will eventually not produce.
 
Here at work we have a chilli plant that's in excess of 10 years and still produces like mad!! But.... I DO work at a fertilizer plant!! ;)
 
My boss has a few hab bushes that produce big amounts still. The Habs were already there when he bought the house a few years ago.

I also have a 2 year old orange hab that produces more than it did the year before.
 
Until last year I had a Habanero de Arbol that was 15+yrs. old.
Even though it was massively infested with Mites it lived until the last pods were ripe.
I know the plant i got the original seeds from is still alive and it was already 12 yrs old back then ( that means SOME plants can live,productively for 25+yrs).
I got about a 5 gal. bucket of pods 2X a year from my tree habanero average-spring and fall pods.It didn't like summer heat.
I beleive the Habanero De Arbol(tree Chile) is a stable Chinense X baccatum hybrid.

http://www.bayoutraders.com/chinense_21.html


I had several Pubescens go over 5 yrs.-mites got them last year.
I hear commorcial growers keep manzanos/rocoto plants for about 12-15 yrs. before they start to get less productive.

I have found that a lot of varieties are only productive for about 5yrs. at most.
I guess it depends on genes,growing conditions etc.
 
What I thnk is for commercial growth and production in general that it's more productive to replant every year in general.
But us chileheads overwinter stuff and baby our plants in ways a commercial grower would not be able to do.
Whole different Ballpark/game.
It depends on if the question was meant as far as a commercial growth was needed or a chileheads victory garden was why the question was asked.
You aren't wrong.
Conditions and pepper variety,strain etc. are all different,you can't generalise all peppers as far as productivity etc.
An example is,Why so many hybrids?
Must be due to the demands of commercial growers for pod production each harvest.Most I doubt aren't for a longivity of plant life and production.
Just 1 yrs. production.
Years ago they figured out crop rotation to increase harvest and end some other problems with soil nutes being depleated or pest management etc.
So Redtailed,you aren't wrong.
Depends on why you are growing stuff and what plant you like to keep growing with the attention it takes to keep on keeping on.
 
A good friend of mine inherited some Trini Pimento plants that were more than five year old when he got them. They have thick, narly trunks & get pruned right back in the winter. Each spring they grow again & produce copius pods.

Trinidad Pimentos are not real hot, they have a fantastic flavour though. Cam anyone tell what the "real" name for Trinidad Pimentos is?
 
This is good news. I'm definitely going to try selecting some good plants from this year and seeing how long they can make it. Seems a waste to start over again each spring if you're not doing a huge crop or something commercial.
 
Would it be reasonable to assume then that a bonsai chilli plant could live around fifty years¿? I have a bonsai Douglah that may outlive me, not that it has produced any pods since it got the chop.
 
This is a 9 yr old purira, still making plenty of fruit.

I have seen 30 yr old tepins growing under a mesquite tree.

purira9.jpg
 
Wow, i want to see some photos of these plants that are so old. They must have such thick stems now.
 
Old thread - I know...
 
Curious to see photos of OLD chilli plants... !  As ASFx said, thick stems...
 
Photos are good :)
 
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