Also see the previous Serrano post: Overwintering Serrano Peppers
I have so many Serrano Peppers in my freezer, I may have to start giving some away, and the plant just keeps making more (~160 fully grown and counting). Triggering the new growth is not automatic, once the plant is done producing its fruit, you have to prune it back and that will trigger brand new growth in a few weeks. In the first photo you can see the branches from the prior two rounds of growth and harvest and the nodes where new growth emerges. The third photo shows the current growth with all the new flowers.
Previously with the last pruning, the plant was outdoors in the cold (nowhere near freezing), with winter light. This time I left it indoors, it was late spring, and it came back just fine, so I’m inclined to believe pruning is the only contributing factor.
This means that by the time the one year anniversary of planting this seed comes around on 17 Sept 2015, it should have completed three full cycles of growth. That’s really impressive. I wonder how long, with adequate fertilization, this process can continue.