Not all peppers will "want" to grow tree-like, though some varieties were bred just so. Is you Hab plant of the pepper tree sort? Got a picture? The only C.chinense I have are Scotch Bonnets and these really bush-out and stay low.

The closest I have to trees are my yellow Rocotos, but it's just how they grew on their first year, triangular shape just over 3' tall. Here's one earlier this season.

I trimmed them back heavily for overwintering and they may go to more of a bush shape next year, who knows? It's the two on the left, the other ones are Jwala and a Scotch Bonnet in the yellow pail.

That Scotch Bonnet is my longest lived plant. It was started (not by me) in early 2015, so next season will be its third and hopefully it does just as well. The Jwala had only one growing season, but was started in the fall of 2015 and overwintered.

As I mentioned elsewhere, overwintering, at least in my climate, only offers an earlier crop from these plants. I've found the yearlings to end-up just as large and to have a comparable yield, only several weeks later. I like to overwinter a few so as to get a staggered harvest, otherwise, I can't eat a single pepper before mid-late August.

I had a Tepin that lived 3 years, no pix. There is a guy from Phoenix that grew a pepper tree.> Topping didn't stop it! In the second pic of this thread you can see how many peppers it was producing.> My pepper tree is dying dammit

Hey Mike, got some pix of your "pube" trees?

I have grown Red Tree and Orange Tree habanero plants. They actually do grow like trees and get much taller than a regular pepper plant.

Here is one from last year. It is in the middle and you can see the regular pepper plants around it.

I have a 4 ft yellow rocoto that I brought inside for the winter and hopefully it will be 6-8 foot tall next year. i'm a member of another pepper forum where some have had pepper plants/trees for over 10 years.

Thanks for all the replies!

My wife had picked out a packet of mixed hot pepper seeds, so not even sure of the type of peppers. I have a 2-foot tall plant that produced mildly hot, medium sized peppers. It seems to have taken to the gritty mix and transport indoors, but maybe if I am aiming for a tree-like plant, I need to pick a specific subspecies.

I also have a second pot with 3 smaller plants that I was thinking of fusing. They produced hotter peppers that faded from yellow to bright red.

My wife & I are moving and I'm not sure I will bond with these plants enough to take them along.

Hey Mike, got some pix of your "pube" trees?

Here ya go:

Top pic is a Manzano, bottom pic is a Rocoto. It was too hot for them to keep their flowers all Summer (lots of blossom drop), but eventually they started to set. I've got too much time vested in these two beasts not to get some ripe pods! ;)

I've been hauling them into the garage at night, and back out into the sun during the day for a few weeks now. Here in Connecticut, even the garage is getting mighty chilly at night now. (Probably) Sooner than later, I'll chop them down to sticks and bring them in to overwinter. This'll be my first attempt at overwintering. Hopefully I can keep them alive, and they'll come back in the Springtime like gangbusters and set pods early on, before it gets too hot

Hey Mike,

Nice C.pubescens plants! So we're in the same boat with late fruits and high hopes of ripe pods. I had to cut mine down and harvest the pods when still green, but they all got ripe on the counter at least. I also hope the two I'm overwintering behave like other chinense and annuum I previously did in that they'll be early producers next season. Good luck!

Yeah, I had really late fruit. I still have some ripening on my plants outside, but I think they won't make it. I'm wondering if it would make sense to pinch the buds the first year if you are planning on overwinter as a more ornamental plant: it would keep the energy for a larger plant with more vegetative growth.

All 3 of my Rocotto's outside are still producing fruit and flowering and so are a few of my Baccatums outdoors. I brought one of my yellow Rocotto's indoors to overwinter.

I have grown the habanero tree before and kept one for around 4 years until someone wanted to buy it. I used to put it on my front porch in the summer and it actually got between 8 and 9 ft. tall.

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Yep, if you want a pepper that truly grows and looks like a TREE, the the Treehab is the one for you. They do produce a lot of peppers as well.

I do believe I have seeds for the orange tree, never grew the red one.

Always welcome to trading, does not have to be for pepper seeds.

This is a habanero I planted this past spring. It has since leaned out over the ground...should have staked it up. We are about to get some less than freezing temps so its days are probably numbered.