Purples & serranos vs. habs & scorps - resilience to pruning

[Wulf]

When I brought in my plants to overwinter, I pruned almost all of them down to sticks.

My ornamental purples and serranos never recovered, though I think there may be a single leaf grown back on 2 of them in the past 2 months. My other plants started regrowing almost immediately (except for one pumpkin hab that regrew, got infested with aphids due to my lack of quarantine control, and doesn't seem to be recovering from a second pruning).

Do certain varieties just not deal well with pruning at all, or is it more a matter of the phase at which I pruned them? The purples and serranos were the only ones with a significant amount of peppers on them at the time, whereas the ones that seemed to do well were just starting to put out their first flowers.

 

[Big Mike]

Wulf,

I'm not sure how different varieties react to pruning but I will say don't give up on the plants that have no leaves. Water them periodically but not excessively. You will likely be pleasantly surprised when you begin to bring them out in the spring. I have pruned several "down to sticks" and had them come back well. They don't have to have leaves on them through the winter to survive.

Big Mike
Visit us Online: www.knot2worry.us

 

[ZenPepper]

for over winter I prune my peppers to sticks and wash all the dirt off until I have bare roots. I turn them into bonzai, I did it to numex twilight, red hab, bhut jolokia and Chinese 5 color, they do recover at different rates. but at the end they all recover. the trick I use is soak the roots in willow water for about a week first so they can recover from the shock, after which I pot them up in potting mix.

This is how I do it, and it works.