Hmmm, doesn't even look like a pepper plant. Well maybe one of the ornamental varieties perhaps? What variety is it and where in the country is it growing?

Dave

They were serranos and I grew them from seeds I bought at a Lowes in the US. I used the seeds from the peppers I grew from these seeds for the next generation plants (pictured). The next generation produced a totally different looking pepper which were about the same size but were round and very wrinkly with deep folds. I live in the central mountains of Costa Rica, coffee growing country.

Addendum to the above. The original plants from the seeds bought in the US are still producing, still green with healthy (serrano looking) peppers. They are 3 years old now.

Have you tried pruning them back? I assume this particular plant was a seedling from your original hybrid, and may not have been as vigorous and productive. I prune my pepper plants back severely when the production slows way down in the summer and they are then reinvigorated for fall production.

Ahh your very different climate explains a great deal. Add your locale to your user profile for future posts please. That way it comes up automatically with your posts. You have a much different climate for peppers than any of us.

But many of the strains of serrano peppers are hybrids so that would explain the different appearance and growth patterns - unlike open-pollinated varieties, hybrids often revert to parent stock.

Dave

Growing season is year round here so there are always new flowers on the plants. I haven’t tried pruning them but I guess I will as I've got nothing to lose. I'll see what happens.

In this forum the assumption will usually be that you're talking about sweet annuals (Capsicum annuum), not perennial hots (Capsicum chinense). In the Hot Peppers Forum they'll usually assume the opposite. If you check there, Ill bet you get solid help.

Although your plant grows year-round, but there is probably a "start" of the growing season. At that time, I think you can cut the plant back. That not only encourages new growth but you can also get rid of thick woody stems that are the older canes.

Or if you really are growing year-round without a start time, then it seems you fit the bill to prune at any time. But that also means your plant should pretty much constantly have flowers or fruit. That it isn't covered in that means there are some other growing conditions that you have to work out.

Take a look at this pepper plant and see how much more yours could be if you did prune it now and then. It also grows year round.

Huge chili pepper plant on YT

But besides the bushiness, your planting area could use some nutrition. You can use store-bought fertilizers but for a long-term solution, since your plant doesn't die back, consider about adding compost near to the plant.

toss her in the compost pile, she's toast. Yields wield soon be non existent

Not toast. Your plants are perennials. Listen to dave_f1.

As a test, take one plant and cut it back to 20 cm or so sticks. Be brutal. Don't water it unless absolutely necessary and don't fertilize it. Then wait two or four weeks. Try some extra fertilizer (fish?) on a few of the other plants. You may be surprised.

I think the central mountains of Costa Rica is probably my dream gardening climate. I visited a garden there which had all the hallmarks of an English garden - roses, apples, familiar annuals and perennials, etc. plus citrus, peaches, avocados and several other tropicals. All flowering and fruiting together. Fresh breezes, not too humid, plenty of rain and cool enough and warm enough for the gardener to be outside all the time. Unbelievably wonderful.

Just to clarify, despite the (mis)naming, C. annuum are just as perennial as any other pepper. Kind of like how C. chinense wound up with a name that means "from China" when in fact, all pepper species are from the new world. There also hot annuums (of which the serrano is one) and not quite so hot chinenses, baccatums, pubescens etc... How neat is that?

Anyways, even here in the U.S. lots of people take advantage of a peppers longevity and successfully overwinter them. I imagine you should have no problem where you are keeping them alive, for a few seasons at least. I agree with cutting it back to give it a fresh start. Peppers are pretty darned tough and all other things being equal (nutrients, proper watering) it should bounce back.

Just a note on peppers as perennials. I do it routinely, but they suffer each winter with freezing temps that I (barely) protect them from. By spring, they may look pretty ragged, but I trim the damaged foliage mercilessly, fertilize (ideally with a strong hit of N), and they seem to recover. This was a particularly rough winter, but I have lot of new green foliage on my 3-yr old TAM Jalapenos, and even a few flowers. They are built like small trees, about three feet tall after trimming, with woody trunks.

That doesn't explain why your peppers are fading, but it may be for some other reason than age. Perhaps a less tolerant variety that came out of your hybrids. Now, you don't say where you are, but I know that you can get hard freezes in the Costa Rican mountains. You do say, however, that you have year-round growing season, so maybe cold weather stresses aren't to blame.

Specifically, I'm near the Orosi Valley just a few kilometers south of Paraiso. Elevation is a little above 4,000 feet. The mountains south of me on the road to Panama have higher elevations and occasionally get snow and freezing temps. Not often, but maybe every few years or so. Here, on rare occasions, it might get down to the upper 40's. Since my original plants are still healthy and producing the long, smooth, serranos and cayennes, I'm going to try several versions of pruning the second generation plants. From radically cutting to only a stalk, to less radical pruning and leaving some limbs. I've got about 10 plants to work with so maybe I'll get results. BTW, I just planted seeds from my second generation and about 90% of them are coming up like weeds. I look forward to putting them in the ground in a month or so.