just my opinions.

it was a mistake to hit with ferts when you did. the plant wants ferts when it is super warm and growing fast. you did not have that condition. you tried to force it to grow faster. you sort of put the cart before the horse. you want the plant growing then you fert. not fert then the plant will grow.

I think the cold weather is just murder on peppers. mine were looking bad. I was taking them out in the daytime. but it got cold again. I brought them back in under the lights. and turned up the warmth. now they are at 75 to 75+ F and doing super under the lights. while it is chilly outside.

I think it is a matter of style on chopping back and letting it go. if you are going to put them into the ground then letting them go is probably ok. if you will keep them in pots then I think cutting back makes more sense.

especially when cold I use only fish and seaweed ferts. not chemical ferts. the natural fish and seaweed ferts are much more gentle on the plants.

I did give my peppers a spray on the leaves with a touch of epson salts and fish fert and seaweed. just a bit. it seems to green up the leaves. but this was done indoors under the lights with warm soil. i estimate it took a good 12 hours to begin to warm up the cold soil in the pots.

Peppers like it at 75 F. in general the peppers are put outdoors 2 weeks AFTER the last frost. You were more than a month before the last frost.

the problem with hardening them off early is then you get forced to go back inside and they then have to be hardened off all over again or the leaves will burn again.

I say definitely no more fertilizer until after the plants have grown a lot. or wash out the fert out of the soil with a lot of rain water run through the pots.

chemical ferts are salt and they kill plants. remember chemical ferts kill plants. say that 100 times until you understand it. if you dont understand it then fert the plants real good with chemical ferts and watch them die. that helps to remember.

after you kill a few hundred plants with chemical ferts you can try organic ferts like compost and fish and seaweed ferts. when you see the amazing results you can become an official convert.

chemical ferts build up in the soil. so if they have been in the pots since the summer and you ferted them 10 times then the soil can get super salty and kill the plants. you must use up all the old ferts before adding more or else they build up and kill the plants.

chuckrox, organic_nut's organic zealotry aside, he made some good points.

I have a gorgeous hab that is now a little over 3 years old. The first year I put it out after over wintering it I badly sunburned it. The best solution was to just let it go and it would eventually bounce back. No ammount of hardening off is going to prevent some loss of foliage, so the best that you can do is get it hardened of early so that it has the most time to bounce back.

I also wouldn't have fertilized the plant, it probably has an extensive root system and the leaves will come back quickly. I don't prune the plants that I over winter, no matter how leggy they get. Since new growth comes from old locations on pappers, they always back bud for me (that is to say that new branches grow on a stem that seems leggy). The only time I ever did prune a plant, I ended up killing it. Pruning is a pretty risky game in which I believe that the risks (death) outweigh the benifit (slightly more compact plant). If the plant gets too large to be manageable (my hab is getting there, it's about 4ft tall and 4ft wide), then pruning may be in order. If the pepper plant decides not to grow leaves on a branch, then the branch will die and dry out, the plant is pruning itself.

An Epsom salts spray is a good suggestion.

Organic Nut,

Just wanted to see thanks for taking the time to respond to so many issues. I learn a lot reading your feedback. I appreciate the effort. This is my second year growing peppers in larger scale (other than store bought seedlings). It's tough to get good advice locally.

Chris