• Do you need help identifying a 🌶?
    Is your plant suffering from an unknown issue? 🤧
    Then ask in Identification and Diagnosis.

Need tips! Sucking? Tipping?

ashrikala

ashrikala

Argh. I've been reading around all over the web and finding conflicting info so I thought I'd run this by the pros here. Please help! I've searched for similar topics in the forum and haven't really found a definitive answer, if there is a thread that answers my questions, please direct me! So here goes:

I've been trying to figure out how give my plants the best shot at being short and bushy with loads of delicious pods. How do I tip/prune the little guys so they grow to be this way. I'm quite confused on the difference between what a sucking is and whatever else parts of the plant that affects the way it grows. What do I cut/prune and when should I do it? Here on some pics of my plants that I've been experimenting with. I thought I would ask before I went hacking away. BTW, this is my first time growing chillies.

Here's a pic of an untouched plant. It seems the new shoots are growing slow and the big leaves are getting all the plants energy:

Tipping4.jpg


Here's one that my mother in-law popped the top leaves off of. It seems they are growing a bunch of new shoots faster than all the rest:

Tipping3.jpg


So my question is. Should I start cutting off the big leaves so my plants focus energy on putting up new shoots that will eventually lead to new branches close to the base? Or would that sap the plants ability to photosynthesize? Here's what I think I should be doing, cutting the leaves where the white lines are, and popping off the top (black circle):

Tippingpaint.jpg


Am I trying to do too much? Should I let them just grow? HALP plz! I love this forum!
 
First off, leaves to not take energy, they produce them. Second, pulling the large lower leaves will make it grow taller unless you prune the top as well then it will bush out more. Cut the top off, just the first few leaves and leave the lower large leaves on and watch that baby branch out and grow.
 
I usually tip 20% if the service is good.

If you need advice on sucking, ask somebody else.;)

TOP THE THING, DON"T PRUNE LEAVES UNTIL THEY START TO YELLOW.
 
millworkman said:
First off, leaves to not take energy, they produce them. Second, pulling the large lower leaves will make it grow taller unless you prune the top as well then it will bush out more. Cut the top off, just the first few leaves and leave the lower large leaves on and watch that baby branch out and grow.
Click to expand...

Sweet! That makes sense! I'll give them a go. It's not to early to do this right? Thanks Workman!

POTAWIE said:
You could try search for "topping" or "root pruning"
or just go here
http://www.thehotpepper.com/showthread.php?t=9148&
Click to expand...

Thanks Potawie, I'll check it out.
 
From what I have seen, when I pull the big leaves after new shoots have started at those locations, I get a bushy plant - IF - the Top has not yet split.

If the Top has split, it seems the energy then goes into that portion of the plant and the lower shoots take much longer to grow from that point on.
 
Hmmm. So plants eventually do split on their own? Interesting. I think I'm gonna do a few tests with these guys for future reference. I'll top 2, top and chop another 2, and leave 3 be to see what happens! Wish me luck! Thanks for the help guys.
 
I have a TS that is about 3' tall and one that is about 1' tall and the 3' tall plant doesn't have that many more pods than the 1' one. I didn't prune the smaller one, but I did plant it deep when I planted it up each time going deeper and deeper than the last.
 
Interesting.

I planted these pretty deep too and they just seemed to push up those first leaves higher. It's like they knowwww!!!!!! :shocked:
 
Some advice on Sucking that I came across......

Drink crappy beer
Don't eat peppers
suck on....stuff
Be a jerk
Kill baby seals
poop on the floor

;)
 
cheezydemon said:
Some advice on Sucking that I came across......

Drink crappy beer
Don't eat peppers
suck on....stuff
Be a jerk
Kill baby seals
poop on the floor

;)
Click to expand...

Hahaha. I'll be sure to follow this so I won't SUCK. lmao cheez
 
I am by no means an expert on this subject but I thought I might share some pics. This is a Scotch Bonnet plant I have growing. About a month ago I pinched out the main growing tip and I have been amazed at how bushy it has become and how pinching has encouraged the plant to split three ways in the center. Here are some before and after pics:

AM01A0646-1.jpg

Growing tip was pinched out early last month
AM01A0744-1.jpg


And a month and ten days later the plant has not grown much in height, but is much much bushier and has many additional branches forcing their way through the older growth and the center of the plant has split three ways.

As this is the first time I have done this I am very impressed with the results and am going to do this to all my plants!

Cheers guys!!
 
Woah! Toms, that's a pretty big difference! I think I got a handle on it now. I'm gonna be doing a little experiment to see what happens. I have 7 of the same plants at about the same stage in development. I've pinched 2 of them, left 2 alone, and the other 3 I'm gonna mess around with pinching different spots to see how they all turn out. I'll post when things get noticeably different.

Thanks for the pics! Makes me feel ok in chopping of my plants tips!
 
No worries mate! Manipulating the growth of plants by removing certain parts at certain points is something that interests me a lot, so I look forward to seeing the results of your experimentation!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top