Mojave, I hope you don't mind my couple additional pics. I didn't want to start a whole other thread for it.
These plants are atop what used to be a great water oak tree with a trunk 15' across. FEMA and my better instinct told me to let them take it down. Stump grinding left a mess. We raked it out, amended with soil and planted on top of it in 2008. These peppers were planted in 2012. The ground has sunk. This is their second summer. There are four bushes.
Their stalks are about one inch or better in diameter.
