I'm going to try the it with my scorps cheers for the info very interesting and detailed
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Bhut Jolokia Pruning Experiment
- Thread starter Stefan_W
- Start date
I just did it this morning so all I have are before pics, But If the results are dramatic I'll post new ones as soon as I can.
Alright life just gets in the way of photography sometimes (overnight work schedule) so no pics, but anecdotally the plant seems to have produced plenty more pods than before pruning. Not scientific in any way, but more peppers=good, so I'll take it and try some side by sides next year.
Most excellent follow-through and leads me to the answer to another question I've been looking for. I have a Moruga plant that I purchased that is healthy, but has not yet branched. No branches = No nodes. I'm thinking of topping it just a bit to encourage it to branch.
Does this sound correct?
Does this sound correct?
Funny thing, some sort of pest, i'm thinking cutworms, inadvertantly helped me out this year. It was eating allllll of my lower level leaves so that my plants all became bushy. The few that were not attacked are taller but have many less nodes then those which I initially was worried about. My one Bhut has about 6 branches stemming out from right at dirt level. To think how mad I was every morning when I went out to discover my plants were a midnight snack, not knowing they were just looking out for me. haha
When did you buy it, how old is it now and how tall? If enough light is hitting the stem it will side shoot without being topped off. If it's not getting enough light in general it will get taller than the average plant before branching off.
I wouldn't prune a lot, especially with a young plant, unless the leaves were in rough shape. The plant will grow to adapt to the conditions, and if something is off you can always change the conditions by moving it to a different spot if it is in a container. I don't tend to prune at the top in any event, so Dave2000's advice is probably more accurate than my own.
Bought it with 5 other plants about a week ago. Age is not known to me but the plant is about 9" tall from the soil to the top. The other 5 plants (not Morugas) are about the same size and have at least one branch point. Its been in mostly full day sun since I got it. I did harden it off over the course of a couple of days...it and the others handled being "fast-tracked" without issue.
A picture is worth a thousand words. The two pods on the left are what has been picked so far from the plant that was not pruned. I used or gave away some from the other plant which are obviously not included in this photo, but the total harvest so far from the plant that was pruned is 23 pods.
A picture is worth a thousand words. The two pods on the left are what has been picked so far from the plant that was not pruned. I used or gave away some from the other plant which are obviously not included in this photo, but the total harvest so far from the plant that was pruned is 23 pods.
Good haul. Is that just what ripened or is that total number of pods from each plant?
do you pinch to force / automate branching?
Thats a first year plant. Probably 6 months old at the time.
Wow, I did not expect this topic from last summer to be revived!
I realize now that I did not finish off the story.
The smaller plant that was pruned continued to out produce the larger plant. This picture was taken in Sept, as I was getting ready to shut down for winter.
Most of the pods on both plants ripened beautifully, but the ones on the smaller plant that was pruned were a bit bigger on average. This is a closer picture of the pods on the smaller plant.
The final count (includes ones I picked along the way) was about 80 pods on the plant that was pruned and about 50 on the plant that was not pruned.
Jamison is completely correct in identifying the plants as being about 6 months old at the time of the pictures. I kept and overwintered the plant that was pruned, and he will be put out in the spring as a second year plant. I gave the other plant to a friend who overwintered it. An interesting side story is that his overwinter has been flowering like crazy and even produced a few pods that he is nurturing, while mine did not. This is almost certainly just differences in growing conditions (temp, watering, etc) rather than a difference in the plants themselves.
I realize now that I did not finish off the story.
The smaller plant that was pruned continued to out produce the larger plant. This picture was taken in Sept, as I was getting ready to shut down for winter.
Most of the pods on both plants ripened beautifully, but the ones on the smaller plant that was pruned were a bit bigger on average. This is a closer picture of the pods on the smaller plant.
The final count (includes ones I picked along the way) was about 80 pods on the plant that was pruned and about 50 on the plant that was not pruned.
Jamison is completely correct in identifying the plants as being about 6 months old at the time of the pictures. I kept and overwintered the plant that was pruned, and he will be put out in the spring as a second year plant. I gave the other plant to a friend who overwintered it. An interesting side story is that his overwinter has been flowering like crazy and even produced a few pods that he is nurturing, while mine did not. This is almost certainly just differences in growing conditions (temp, watering, etc) rather than a difference in the plants themselves.
I'm gonna try this for sure! Great thread and thanks for ask the awesome info!
This is something I have noticed being debated on here quite regularly. Some folks say prune. Others say let nature be. Thank you for providing us with a visual comparison. As 1 plant was compared with another plant, individual differences cannot be ruled out, however. One plant may simply have been genetically superior to the other. Multiple pruned plants would need to be compared to multiple non-pruned plants, all from seeds harvested from the same plant and grown with identical environmental factors (light, soil, water, nutes) with averaged results noted. I wish I had the space to perform such an experiment. Come to think of it, I wish my plants looked as good as yours. Keep up the good work.
Great thread, with this same theme, I am about to do a thread for AACT compost tea, a small experiment showing the effects. If anyone wants to get in to share pics on the thread please PM me.