thanks for the advice, esox!

No problem. Post some photos of the little fella. We like photos here.

If you are in zone 10, it should be fine to keep it outside. I had several pepper plants that did fine last winter and produced really well this summer.

thanks, tyler. once they get a bit bigger and undergo topping, i'll put them outside. germination has been overly successful, and now i have more seedlings than i know what to do with. and esox, here were a few of them back on september 20; they've grown a bit since then. (in the background, fuzzy beyond recognition: prime ark freedom blackberries and a serrano pepper plant.)

[edit: the forum software won't accept the picture. it's only a few MB, but i might need to downsize it.]

I keep mine outside all winter. Here's a photo from December 19, 2016:

wow, one of my september seedlings is now outside and producing pods, much earlier than i expected. should i prune them or leave them alone? will pod production (and eventual flowering and fruiting) decrease the overall growth of the plant and lead to a smaller-sized plant in the long run?

I would leave them alone because even though they do grow during mild winter, it's very slow and not by very much. I did prune 2 of my plants as an experiment, and after the cut, I didn't notice hardly any growth until the following spring. In the end, it seemed like both pruned and un-pruned plants grew well during the spring. Of course my sample size is too small to even be called an experiment, and pruning to make the plants grow much bigger may need to take place during an optimal growth period like spring or summer and not during a fairly dormant stage like winter. Next spring, I plan to grow primarily tomatoes and peppers, so will try pruning again next spring to see if that makes any difference compared to controlled group.

thanks for the perspective, tyler. will see what the plant does; i'm new to this, so it's all a learning experience.

edit: i misspoke two posts above; i meant emerging buds, not pods.

one success and one failure. (and there were plenty of failures.)

I don't think this next one's coming back.

oh, snap. for the past several years, i thought i was growing thai peppers. but based on further poking around the interwebz, it seems these are vietnamese tear jerker peppers or a strain very much like them. here's a pic from last summer.

What is the difference between the Vietnamese Tear Jerker peppers and standard Tabasco peppers?

wish I could say, pk. the only tabasco peppers i’ve ever tasted have been in liquid form.