From this forum post I found a post, it is an old post of 26th April 2006 from organic_nut

" the problem with keeping old plants is that the roots get old and lose their health. then the plant goes down hill. the old plant usually bring in all kinds of bugs that go wild indoors etc. all this can be avoided with some care."

Some overwinter plants got new buds.

5 years old Ghost

Re-potted on the same day now it has buds.

After trimming the death stems the small one is Brown Ghost I did not over winter on the same day and I expecting it will get new buds soon. My garden scissor is not cut smoothly so I used knife.

Snow White got buds too

Snow White again, I have two plants they got buds more faster than the Ghost.

When I added new post and pictures to my own post, it added as new comment but it could not be comment all the times sometimes they could be my updates. However I enjoy the forum, to have a space to ask or express something for my plants.

Many of the plants got buds. Every season fungus gnats are usual visitors only yellow sticky traps help a lot. In the local market it is very expensive so I buy it from China they are more cheaper. Shipping charge is also free. I never tried local market's yellow sticky trap.

I am happy to see the new buds and also worry because it seems too me a bit early.

I haven't water all the plants since I re-potted.

A bit difficult to grow all these plants in our climate without a green house.

I haven't used grow light yet, some of them I put on the window sills and the rest put on the tables. I will remove the branches when they are getting bigger. Now I turn off the heater and the room temperature is around 18 C.

C. Chacoense P2 is 5 years old I got the seeds from pepperlover.com when I bought Trinidad Scorpion Moruga Blend seeds they gave me free. The first year this plant had a couple of flowers and pods and the rest of the C. Chacoense P2 plants had a lot of pods. One of the forum members here told me wild chili sometimes produce more pods when they are getting old, now it is true. Only this season after pruning number of times it produced a lot of pods.

A couple of weeks ago I harvested and overwintered.

Overwintered but now it has a lot of new buds.

The pot is smaller than before, to experiment the size of the pot.

Two years old overwintered Brown Ghost got new buds.

Update

The first raw left:

Carolina Reaper, Ghost Peppernovice, Wild Chili C. Chacoense P2 and Carolina Reaper.

The second raw left:

Yellow Fatali, Carolina Reaper, Carolina Reaper and Yellow Fatali

The third raw left:

Carolina Reaper, Yellow Fatali and Carolina Reaper

The fourth raw Left:

Yellow Fatali and Franch Tarragon.

Two terracotta pots outside is Japanese Wasabi. The soil and leaves and stems were frozen last year and this year but they survived.

Update

Carolina Reaper got flower buds.

Brown/Chocolate Ghost

Ghost

Snow White

Update

Brown/chocolate Ghost

Ghost

Snow White

2019 update

Overwintered Carolina Reaper

Overwintered Ghost Red

From different angle

That's an impressive red ghost. How big do you think it'll be at the end of the year?

I might start overwintering 1-2 peppers to see how much more productive it is the second year.

I think it will be big like the previous year if it has no disease and infection, it is my expectation.

Overwinter Chinense is very productive. The first year my Ghost (chocolate) was not productive and the pod size were also not big but after one year it had more pods and bigger size.

About 6 overwinter plants were failed. They were one Rocoto, one Carolina Reaper, one Fatali and 3 Ghost (crossed).

Some of the overwintered plants.

March 2019 update

My oldest overwintered Red Ghost. Today I put it outside, many times my plants got sunburned this season how many of them will be sunburned, I am ready for it. I use some fabrics to avoid the direct sunlight and I won't put them outside very long time, it is my preparation to avoid sunburned.

Same picture from different angle.

I gave fertilizer for the first time.

Still I have many to upload, I'll do it later.

Thank you, these photos are beautiful and informative! I never considered overwintering peppers, but now seeing your success I think it will try it next year!
Another reason to cut off some roots, is in a pot, some roots reach the wall of the pot and turn right or left. They start growing in a circle around the pot. Then they grow thicker but there is no empty soil for them to grow into so they squeeze each other. So it's good to cut off the roots that are growing along the wall of the pot and provide some empty soil for roots to grow into for the coming year.

HighColdDesert, the difficult part for overwintered for me is monitor the soil moisture and fungus gnats. Less water kills the plants and a bit more water also had problem of fungus gnats.

I did not use fertilizer but most of my plants have no sign of nutrient deficiency. They started flower about two months ago, I may get early pods if they do not have any problems, mainly problems of sunburned.

Chocolate Ghost, it lost the biggest and healthiest branch with a lot of flowers. The broken branch I put into a small pot after removing all the leaves, the soil is coco coir and the mulch is cat litter.

After a couple of weeks. The small leaves are new they are getting bigger. I haven't check the the roots. Just an experiment.

Broken branch rescue

Rocoto De Seda Gold easy to grow pepper to our climate, it is prolific and big pod. I hate the taste. I tried once stuffing cheese/meat and baked, it was delicious but I was almost collapsed due to the heat started at night slowly. It is too hot for stuffing for me. Dried and making powder is the best for this pepper.

Overwintered Rocoto De Seda Gold.

Sunburned a little bit.

Dried Rocoto De Seda Gold

Fungus Gnats

Many plants died due to the fungus gnats problems I think.

Hardening off the plants.

Three years old overwintered Carolina Reaper.

One year old overwintered Carolina Reaper.

Overwintered Carolina Reaper one year old.

Six years old overwintered Snow White.

Overwintered Wild Chili C. Chacoense P2 is 6 years old. Three times I have pruned this plant.

Overwintered Fatali Yellow

About to throw away overwintered Chocolate Ghost's broken branch.

I don't see anything broken... or did you try to root that?

I re-read the post to refresh myself... It looks like it grew new leaves.... any roots? Why throw it out now when prime time is coming up.

I was thinking to throw away when it was broken. It was also the biggest branch of my overwintered Chocolate Ghost. It had a lot of flowers too.

I haven't check the roots, I like it a bit bigger and stronger before I re-pot it. I think it has roots now, the stem and new leaves make me think this way.

The mother plant/overwintered Chocolate has a lot of branches after the biggest one was broken.

Overwintered Red Ghost (Peppernovice seed)

From Overwintered Questions to Overwintered Adventure

I started re-potting.

The oldest red Ghost re-potted nothing went wrong except one small branch broken, I did not throw it away.

Overwintered Fatali re-potted, no re-potting-shock

Overwinter Chocolate Ghost, got shock. Overwintered Rocoto De Seda re-potted no shock.

After about 7 hours, it looks like fine.

Overwintered Red Ghost got first pod.

The small pot behind the big pot is Chocolate Ghost it is dying after I checked the roots. There were no roots. I changed the soil from co co coir to potting soil from super market.

The Chocolate Ghost is not yet fully recover from re-potting shock. It lost a lot of very small new roots when I re-potted. It cannot stay a little bit longer outside, all the leaves get wither.

Overwintered Carolina Reaper pods

That's a nice journal! Some of them look like bonsai. I used to overwinter several chinenses in my garage, but this year I left them outside in a low tunnel.

November

A rocoto and Fresno look fine. A Tobago seasoning still has some green, but it may be toast.

Yes, some of them look like bonsai. I should not cut the stem too short. The period of hardening off is ended all my plants have no problems of sunburn. I have some minor problems due to keeping them outside at night. A couple of days were cold at night it were under 10C. Now the plants look like stunt.