Leave them. I've found chiles do fine when planted in pairs, they shade each other, which can be very helpful if you live somewhere where the sun is very intense. Only thing is you just have to water & feed for 2 plants instead of one. Based on your picture, everything looks fine.

Nurseries often plant chillies two to a pot. Better to leave them together when they're this developed, or risk losing one or both. I experienced this last year when I bought a rather large Uyababa (c annuum) that turned out to be two plants. I separated them and one didn't make it.

Just this past week I bought a pair of jalapeños in the same condition. The stems are about 0.5cm. Not as big as yours but as you can see below, the roots are very intricately intertwined. I repotted them together. I think they'll do fine. They're just wilting in the heatwave we're having & maybe a bit of transplant shock.

Your plants look happy as they are & loaded with blossoms. Enjoy the summer & fruiting season.

Thank you so much everybody! :)

Leaving them was the option I was hoping for ...only because it requires the least amount of effort on my part, and I don't want to lose a plant that I've been nurturing for months.

From your photos, Lala, it doesn't look like it affects the fruiting and that's what I care about most.

It'll be interesting to see what happens when the stumps fatten up a bit more; there is only a few millimetres between them.

If you keep the pot well taken care of both plants should do fine. I grew many sets of 2 plants to a 5 gal bucket and they all did exceptional this year. Mid Oct I finally composted them, I was tired of picking. Here's a photo from Aug of two Mustard Habaneros in a 5 gal pot. From mid Aug to Mid Oct I picked over 120 ripe pods ( I quit counting the last couple weeks). My Bhuts and other hots went crazy producing well over 100 pods per bucket.....

Chocolate Bhut

2015 Peppers · More Info

@SandysGardens: That's great to hear! This is my first year growing chilli, so I might have a few newb questions every now and then.
I picked the very first pod today; a big red jalapeno. There's already more
on the plant than I can use. 100 pods per pot sounds ridiculous!

I would personally cull one since it is in a pot but in the ground I would leave it. Tabasco pepper plants are very productive so you would not lose many peppers