If you are overwintering them then you might want to cut them back even more. I cut my plants way down and also cut the root ball to match the tops. After 2 weeks now they have been putting on alot of new growth.
Wildomar, California looks south of Los Angeles. Maybe you live on a mountain top that gets really frozen. But IF NOT then I want to say.
I would not have brought them indoors. I would have left them alone to survive the entire winter outdoors. What is your winter like. I can go to negative 20 F in New England. I usually sit for over 3 weeks and never get to a high of 32 F all that time and more. I think of Southern California as beautiful in the winter. a few nights below 32 is nothing. simply cover them on freezes. or bring indoors if in pots.
I think you damaged your plants.
You also have New Mexico type plants which would include Anaheim peppers.
The bigger the plant gets the more branches then the more peppers it can hold. also the bigger the root system the more peppers it can ripen.
I would be growing some Tabasco plants looking to hold them to become several years old. Tabasco is almost impossible up here @ 43 North.
Most of the literature on holding plants over the winter is for people who live in cold areas with long winters. Their advice is not the same for you. You have no real winter. The winter is the best growing season for you. You can grow more in the winter than you can in the heat of the summer. Only a few things are really frost tender like tomatoes and peppers and melons but most things will do very well through frosts. And for mild frosts it is nothing to protect the plant over night.
Come up to New England for a few winters and grow veggies here in our summers. You will go home and realize you live in growing paradise.
For about a week I have been covering up the plants at night to protect them from the cold nights we have been having lately(less than 40 degrees). I have been moving them out to a spot that gets the most sun exposure durring the day(8 + hrs). This process was keeping the plants stable but I started seeing the effects of the cold temps on the leaves. I brought the serrano and the cayenne in about two days ago and put them under 6 65w cfl lights in a closet in a spare room upstairs.These lights are on 24 hours a day.
I have been looking at the serrano much more closely and am considering removing more branches from the plant. I want to do this to make it fit in the grow space, but also to create a main stem and have it branch out into a V towards the top.
What would my chances be of cloning some of the cuttings that I remove from this plant? I think I remember reading that clones can be done from a plant that is in its vegetative stage. I would like to start some other plants from this plant because I bout the plant as a transplant and did not grow it from seeds.
Any advise that could be given to me to be able to acomplish what I think I want to do would be greatly apreciated.
What would my chances be of cloning some of the cuttings that I remove from this plant? I think I remember reading that clones can be done from a plant that is in its vegetative stage. I would like to start some other plants from this plant because I bout the plant as a transplant and did not grow it from seeds.
