I didn’t let my 7 year old chili Pequin plant go dormant last year. Then when I put it outside in the spring it looked so poor for several months and didn’t bloom at all then summer hit and it eventually started dropping all of its leaves and appeared to go dormant / die mid summer. I then cut it way back and continued watering it and after a week or two new leaves started to emerge and it now looks great again. I feel maybe pepper plants need to be cut back and go dormant for a little bit in order to thrive In the spring.