I read somewhere last year about cutting back pepper plants to make them bushier. My plants have at least a couple pairs of true leaves now, and it'll be a month before it's warm enough to plant them in the garden. I was wondering if anyone had cut back their plants at this stage, and what the results were. Is there any reason not to cut them back?

This is one of those subjects that usually has three lines of opinions; it makes them produce more, it doesn't make them produce more and indifference. The theory is that if you cut off the apical bud (top of the leader) it will force new lateral growth and thus create more branches than it would have had and thus make more peppers. The Yes and No camps both have their supporters.

When you prune off the apical bud on most any kind of plant it will stimulate lateral growth and a new leader will eventually form. The question then comes down to productivity. Will those extra side branches all produce peppers and thus make more per pruned plant than an unpruned plant will?

I've been playing with cutting the apical for several years now but I can't say there are more peppers made because I've never bothered to count! Too much other stuff going on. Jalapeno and Gypsy are the only peppers I grow two of and one of everything else so those two are the only ones I could test; one to be cut and one not and then compare. You can't really cut one each of different peppers and try to compare production. I can say I like the extra foliage for protection against sun scald here.

There are you tube videos available showing the process if you search pruning peppers. Personally I let mine get about 6" tall with at least two sets of true leaves before pruning. You ought to run a test and see!

I wonder if location makes a difference? My feeling, with absolutely no proof, is that pruning would set back the growth process. By how much? No idea, but any set back would adversely affect my productivity because of the shorter growing season peppers have in my area anyway. Would there be a few more peppers on the plant by the time frost hits? A bunch more? And would they all be green anyway?

I am in the do not prune camp just because it is more work than I want to do. I don't really care if my pepper harvest is increased, so maybe I am just indifferent.

I don't prune and I have never tried it. I plant double rows about 18" apart usually with a pepper every 12". I weave each row twice, then string them together in a diamond. I like them up off the ground and well supported. I do eggplant the same way.

If I was only growing a few plants with lots of space in a raised bed, I can see wanting them to bush out.

I prune mine just because I grow them inside I don’t get as many but I’m ok with that plus they do get bushy at least mine do I cut them early

My wife cut the apical buds off of my Jalapeno peppers once. I was not happy about it and she will never do it again. She does not cut the apical bud off of her no neat Jalapenos either. All it seemed to do was produce a shorter plant.

Pruning does seem to delay fruiting by about two weeks or so but I have a very long growing season. Fruiting may depend on the type of pepper and/or geographical area/climate. My pruned plants eventually get as tall as they would if unpruned. I haven't pruned the two jalapenos and wasn't planning to but I should do one and then try to remember to keep a count of peppers produced by each just out of curiosity.

Sometimes my peppers are grown down the middle of a 4' wide raised bed, 18" apart with maybe marigolds or carrots grown on both sides. Other times they're on one side of the bed and beans or something else are grown on the other side. There's a 4' stake pounded in on the northeast side of each pepper (prevailing winds from the SW) and when they get tall enough I tie a circle of baling twine to each stake and then loosely around its plant to keep them from splaying out.

I don't trim the peppers early - it didn't seem to produce more peppers, just bushier plants. I find it easier to pick the peppers, when the plants aren't as bushy.

normally, i don't prune my peppers,

EXCEPT

zupa. the zupa pepper, if you don't prune it, will get really, really tall compared to any other pepper
you may be growing. it is a very early producing pepper, so if fruiting is delayed by pruning, it shouldn't
make much of a difference. prune zupa.


keith

No.

Does anyone use a cold treatment on their pepper plants?

Tormato wrote: ↑Tue Apr 11, 2023 7:18 am Does anyone use a cold treatment on their pepper plants?

I don't, it doesn't seem to matter here in my part of Texas.
But they get what nature throws at them.

I grow all my starts in my basement under lights - it hovers around 60 degrees. Been growing my starts like this for years; 2010 was the first I kept records. Is that considered 'cold treatment'?

I don't prune but I have noticed that I get two pickings. I pick almost all the fruit off the plants in early August. Then the plants start loading up with more peppers for my 2nd picking which is at the end of September.


Dan

CrazyAboutOrchids wrote: ↑Tue Apr 11, 2023 1:56 pm I grow all my starts in my basement under lights - it hovers around 60 degrees. Been growing my starts like this for years; 2010 was the first I kept records. Is that considered 'cold treatment'?

Perhaps what you do works perfectly fine, but appears to be different than a true cold treatment.

A cold treatment is growing seedlings at about 70 degrees and then for four weeks at 53 to 55 degrees. I can not set up a growing area for such precise temps.

I’ve taken generally neglected, cold stunted peppers languishing for weeks in their 4” containers and planted them out later in April and they generally bounce back and become productive later in the season. I’ve got a couple of guajillos I started thevseed on new year’s eve that are barely 5” tall. I’m going to plant them this week. I bet they will be giving out peppers in June or July.

Yak54 wrote: ↑Tue Apr 11, 2023 2:35 pm I don't prune but I have noticed that I get two pickings. I pick almost all the fruit off the plants in early August. Then the plants start loading up with more peppers for my 2nd picking which is at the end of September.


Dan

I have gotten multiple pickings from many varieties of peppers, some up to 3, with most ripening about the same time, while others are like indeterminate tomatoes, with the peppers ripening at random, and constantly flowering. I always note which kind they seem to be, when I describe the peppers, in my notes.

pepperhead212 wrote: ↑Tue Apr 11, 2023 11:21 pm

Yak54 wrote: ↑Tue Apr 11, 2023 2:35 pm I don't prune but I have noticed that I get two pickings. I pick almost all the fruit off the plants in early August. Then the plants start loading up with more peppers for my 2nd picking which is at the end of September.


Dan

I have gotten multiple pickings from many varieties of peppers, some up to 3, with most ripening about the same time, while others are like indeterminate tomatoes, with the peppers ripening at random, and constantly flowering. I always note which kind they seem to be, when I describe the peppers, in my notes.

That is valuable information to have and share.