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tutorial A Simple Guide to Topping and Pruning
- Thread starter Jamison
- Start date
I love orchards set up like that, I find it very visually appealing.
I don't know if you do that in the U.S, but here in France we have a technique of pruning for apple trees (and other) called "Espalier". We use this technique since Middle Age :
The aim is to :
- gain space
- put trees against walls (this way get the heat from it, which increase sugar in fruits)
- less bugs
- get the same amount of light as a normal tree
- trees live longer (because of the wall)
Here is a link in English : http://www.amarmieli...ruit-trees.html
I'm wondering if it's possible with a pepper ....
Thats really cool! Id pay to see a pepper plant look like that.
Should I prune these leaves that are a much lighter green? I already took two that were approaching yellow. I think they're a combination of old and survivors of my reckless sun hardening.
Most the growth above and below them is newer. Here's what they're shading.
Most the growth above and below them is newer. Here's what they're shading.
Been 2 weeks or so since i topped this guy. Can finally see that the topping worked. Have to admit that I was getting worried about it, my guess is that it took awhile because it is growing slow compared to others. This is one of my first sprouts from back at the beginning of march.
Is a little out of focus because teh camera kept focusing on the closer leaf.
can deff see the two stems coming in.
I did this with 2 other plants and you can see the 2 stems starting to grow with them also.
Is a little out of focus because teh camera kept focusing on the closer leaf.
can deff see the two stems coming in.
I did this with 2 other plants and you can see the 2 stems starting to grow with them also.
Very interesting thread.
This season I pruned the lower leaves of my mature plants in the garden to allow more airflow. I've read that it is a good idea to remove any leaves touching the soil to reduce possibility of disease.
If the plants have a thick canopy and the lower leaves aren't receiving any light then you could say they are useless in that way. But leaves are more than just a solar panel. They store nutrients and if there is a deficiency some nutrients can be sucked from the older leaves to the newer leaves, so they act as a buffer. They also keep the plant cool through transpiration, and you can foliar feed them. They probably do more stuff that I don't know about.
In my experience most of the time when leaves show signs of a deficiency they don't recover. You can correct the problem and the new growth will be better, but then the damaged leaves should be removed. This way you can see at a glance if the plant shows any new signs of a problem. This is a simple and useful form of pruning.
Sometimes I have to prune plants because they grow off in crazy directions but generally I let them do what they want.
I've topped plants before when they had mites, vainly hoping that new growth would be untouched, but mites stunt new growth and nothing regrows.
I had some plants that didn't grow true this season. They were supposed to be low and bushy but grew really tall and gangly. Had I known before I would have topped them and forced them to bush out.
Chilli plants have evolved to grow successfully without humans pruning and topping. Of course animals have always been chewing on plants and topping them and pruning them too. If you take seeds from one climate and grow them in another that changes everything up.
So with all the different things going on my opinion is that other factors are far more important for getting a healthy plant and high yield. If you've got your plant variety and growing system highly tuned, pruning could still help or hinder.
This season I pruned the lower leaves of my mature plants in the garden to allow more airflow. I've read that it is a good idea to remove any leaves touching the soil to reduce possibility of disease.
If the plants have a thick canopy and the lower leaves aren't receiving any light then you could say they are useless in that way. But leaves are more than just a solar panel. They store nutrients and if there is a deficiency some nutrients can be sucked from the older leaves to the newer leaves, so they act as a buffer. They also keep the plant cool through transpiration, and you can foliar feed them. They probably do more stuff that I don't know about.
In my experience most of the time when leaves show signs of a deficiency they don't recover. You can correct the problem and the new growth will be better, but then the damaged leaves should be removed. This way you can see at a glance if the plant shows any new signs of a problem. This is a simple and useful form of pruning.
Sometimes I have to prune plants because they grow off in crazy directions but generally I let them do what they want.
I've topped plants before when they had mites, vainly hoping that new growth would be untouched, but mites stunt new growth and nothing regrows.
I had some plants that didn't grow true this season. They were supposed to be low and bushy but grew really tall and gangly. Had I known before I would have topped them and forced them to bush out.
Chilli plants have evolved to grow successfully without humans pruning and topping. Of course animals have always been chewing on plants and topping them and pruning them too. If you take seeds from one climate and grow them in another that changes everything up.
So with all the different things going on my opinion is that other factors are far more important for getting a healthy plant and high yield. If you've got your plant variety and growing system highly tuned, pruning could still help or hinder.
Right side was topped, left was fim'd.
More buds on fim, more undergrowth on topped branch.
More buds on fim, more undergrowth on topped branch.
Going to bump this thread and give an update on my topped plant
Here it is about a month later. It had a run in with some thrips and spider mites, but it is still doing pretty where here on my balcony. Gets about 5 hours of dappled sunlight afternoon sunlight.StupidJerk said:You thread inspired me to experiment. I topped this Butch about 1 week ago
Here it is today
Really incredible in my opinion.
Got to this too late for the first flowering, so most of mine are "Natural".
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Did break the top off a Primo while transplanting, and the wind took all the rest of the leaves off during a couple days of high wind.
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Nothing but a stick in the ground.
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Now bushing out quite nicely at every node.
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Peppers are forgiving to the heavy hand.
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Did break the top off a Primo while transplanting, and the wind took all the rest of the leaves off during a couple days of high wind.
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Nothing but a stick in the ground.
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Now bushing out quite nicely at every node.
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Peppers are forgiving to the heavy hand.
I should elaborate a bit. When your season is short you have only a little compact plant to work with. You want it to fork off as much as possible.
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The same is true with bad growing conditions whether it be lack of sun, lack of fertilizer, or whatever.
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If you don't have a bad environment, nor a short season, what you want is the plant to get tall and wide because it's a bit like a solar cell, a tall wide plant can literally catch triple the sunlight, and grow 3x as fast, and then catch 9x the sunlight, and well... it's the difference between a little plant with a few dozen peppers and a giant plant with 2000.
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If you prune and you aren't getting at least 1000 peppers per plant a season then you should reconsider doing it and look at other variables.
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The same is true with bad growing conditions whether it be lack of sun, lack of fertilizer, or whatever.
Â
If you don't have a bad environment, nor a short season, what you want is the plant to get tall and wide because it's a bit like a solar cell, a tall wide plant can literally catch triple the sunlight, and grow 3x as fast, and then catch 9x the sunlight, and well... it's the difference between a little plant with a few dozen peppers and a giant plant with 2000.
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If you prune and you aren't getting at least 1000 peppers per plant a season then you should reconsider doing it and look at other variables.
Hello Everyone,
I have read trough this whole post and there are a lot of good opinions.
I tried topping a plant this year it was a store bought plant so had plenty of foliage and I left 5-6 inches of stem and leaves.
In 4-5 days the plant dropped every leaf and hasn't done much of anything since it was a banana pepper plant about a 2-3 weeks ago now.
Did the topping cause this or? I did not prune the leaves they fell off on their own accord.
Thanks everyone!
Great post Jamison
I have read trough this whole post and there are a lot of good opinions.
I tried topping a plant this year it was a store bought plant so had plenty of foliage and I left 5-6 inches of stem and leaves.
In 4-5 days the plant dropped every leaf and hasn't done much of anything since it was a banana pepper plant about a 2-3 weeks ago now.
Did the topping cause this or? I did not prune the leaves they fell off on their own accord.
Thanks everyone!
Great post Jamison
Thanks for the info Jamison, I am now inspired to try one of these techniques as soon as my plants are big enough to do so.
Guys, quick question. I've got these two Cayenne's growing in my appartment. They're about three months old and are showing a lot of nodes.
The smaller one is putting more effort in making the nodes grow, while the bigger one is already splitting at the top, and showing signs of producing a couple flowers.
Any advice on wether to prune/top these down and let the plant focus on the nodes more? Is it too early for the plant to produce flowers? Thanks for any advice!
The big one:
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The smaller one:
The smaller one is putting more effort in making the nodes grow, while the bigger one is already splitting at the top, and showing signs of producing a couple flowers.
Any advice on wether to prune/top these down and let the plant focus on the nodes more? Is it too early for the plant to produce flowers? Thanks for any advice!
The big one:
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The smaller one:
I topped the plants I have downstairs in my kitchen and are responding quite well. They were started in late October. I'll post sine pics tomorrow night if them when I'm off work to further explain the first pics in the thread. I tired doing it with the others upstairs that are smaller and their not responding to it just yet.
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I stripped the lower leaves from a bunch of plants, many of which are their leaves on the step. Do you guys think I should cut back this secondary growth to make a canopy or leave it?
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