Sure it can work. I have done it many times. I have done it in soil and in a cup of water. Not sure which is better but both work. Doing it in a glass of water allows you to monitor for root growth however and is the method I prefer. Just be advised that it normally takes quite a while for it to root.
Bruce

I haven't tried rooting peppers. I recall that you want the would-be load on the not-yet-existent roots to be small, though, so you should cut that branch way back. Or cut it up into several pieces and try to root all of them.

Please let us know how it goes.

Dennis

I have rooted cuttings of pepper plants in the past (I think I posted about it on gardenweb with pictures etc, but that was a while back)
I have to 2nd what DMForcier said, you need to cut off all of the flower buds and pods to have any chance; and allso if you cut it into smaller portions you may have multiple times as many chances for success.

Here is a cutting from a Hot Hungarian Wax Pepper experiment from a few years ago:

And this is an Orange Tree Habanero Pepper cutting that I started in a glass of water. You can see the roots forming.

Pepper plants are pretty resilient, no :-)

Stoney

Cutting of flowering tangerine bell

Very interesting.
Thanks, Bruce for the pictorial documentary .
I always thought that peppers would be hard to root. That is why I have tried not to bury pepper plant real deep, thinking that they will not grow extra roots.

Pepper plants will grow roots out from any part of the stem that is below the soil line. I routinely plant my peppers slightly deeper every time I transplant them and I find that they wind up throwing out roots at any point below the soil line. It does seem to take a lot of time for them to actually put out roots when doing cuttings, at least longer compared to many other plants that I have done it with. But they usually will set root eventually. If you do it in soil, make sure you keep the soil moist to wet until you are they set root. Then cut back on the watering a bit. I just find that using the water glass method is so much easier because you KNOW when the plant has rooted and then once they get fairly well developed, you can simply transplant them to a container and you are set. I do stick the stem in rooting hormone before placing in the glass with water. It mostly washes off and I dont know if it helps or not, but I like to think that it does even if it is just floating in the water. Cuttings are a great way to ensure you get true and perfect clones of the mother plant with no chance at a cross.
Bruce

Thanks for the info all. So I took Bruces,DMF and ranchers advice, and separated the branch into smaller pieces and set each into a cup of water. The water is a little cloudy due to the rooting compound I dipped them in. After seeing wilards pic though I wish I left the flowers on lol. You can see the parent plant in the left of the picture along with its first ghost pod on the lower left portion of the plant(red arrow). The other two in the back ground are just a cali wonder(middle) and a chocolate bell(right) that are in full pod action right now. Will keep ya posted on if the take root or not.

Thanks as always
Rey....

This post was edited by flipback23 on Mon, Jun 9, 14 at 13:30

Great, yes, please update us on the progress. I know they say you should cut the bigger leaves in half, but that would probably only apply to the one on the far left. The others have smaller, new growth leaves which is preferable.
I suggest you take a photo about once a week just to record the progress for your own reference, concentrating on the bottom of the stem where the roots will likely form.
One other tip that i didn't mention before is that roots will form best at and just above a node. When trimming a cutting from a plant, you should always cut the cutting just below a node. If you cut above a node, the stem on the cutting below that first node will likely die off and not produce any roots. In the picture below, I marked in blue where I would cut the stem. You could cut either place depending on how big of a cutting you like. Then, after cutting the stem below that node, you cut off the existing leaves or side stems at that node as well.
One other tip is that it is sometimes helpful to "score" the bottom part of the stem which will prompt the cutting to put out roots from that area. This is just basically lightly scraping the bottom 1/2" to 1" of stem at and above the node.
I hope your experiment is successful, just be patient. Peppers take longer than most other plants to put out roots than other plants I have done it with.
Bruce

Bruce,
Thanks for the last pic. I cut exactly at those areas, so at least I called the nodes the right area lol. Will do on the weekly log as well. Thanks again. Will be cool if it works or not at least the mother plant will provide many pods(crossing fingers) if the rooting does not take hold.
Rey...

personally, i would have planted the whole thing, planted deep,with only a couple of inches above the soil line.
and scored it on several spots...

use a light solution of hydrogen peroxide to prevent fungus.

im no cuttings expert, but thats what i do with roses and some other plants.
it gives them a consistent moisture level, and several places for roots to appear.

more than likely, roots will appear on several spots on the cutting
, making it much stronger and able to absorb water and nutrients better.

ive only rooted 3 pepper plants though
but 2 of them were short, and i regretted it because it seemed to take them forever to grow since they were small and barely any roots.