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Pinching buds

jessxcr

jessxcr

I have been pinching buds on my plants for the past couple weeks now. They are in the hardening off process and I just potted up to their final homes. For the pinchers out there... when should I stop pinching now? Here is the size they are. Hopefully they will be going outside permanently within the next couple weeks.

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I accidentally clipped a couple leaves on a couple of my plants when pinching also and it is really making them bush out:

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As compared to another:

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It will be interesting to see which one produces more pods.
 
I like a bushier plant. They seem much more sturdy in heavy winds.

I personally would let those plants grow more. It is hard to tell but it doesn't seem like they have Y-ed at the tops yet.
 
They look quite small to let them go to bud. Hopefully when they're outside full time they'll do some growing.
 
I stopped pinching mine, however they are a little taller than yours. I've heard mixed discussions about pinching. Once they're outside full-time, they will grow fast. Mine seem like they grow a couple of inches a night. Your plants look very healthy! Good luck!
 
What I did, am doing, is figure out what the size of the adult plant will be... when it reaches half that size I have/will stop pinching.


Did this for anuums before. This is my first year with chinense from seed so take it for what it is...
 
mesatrin said:
I like a bushier plant. They seem much more sturdy in heavy winds.

I personally would let those plants grow more. It is hard to tell but it doesn't seem like they have Y-ed at the tops yet.
Click to expand...

In your experience is this where to stop pinching???
 
I would have to say it really depends because I have had plants that are 3-4 inches and already Y-ed, but I would never let a plant that has not Y-ed off yet start to flower.
 
I've really got no room to yak on the subject, being a first year, but here we go. Right now I'm still pinching buds because I want to get more size out of my plants before they go to fruit and hopefully therefore have more fruit producing sites. So I'm pinching as well as using a vegetative promoting fert (higher nitrogen) to hopefully boost them to my preferred initial size and then swap over to a bloom promoting fert for fruit production somewhere around June. But thats timed for my local climate, as July and August are frequently over 100 degrees. So they'll get shaded and babied in hopes for a second harvest in October.
 
I see you are in the same zone as me just a state over.

I pinch my buds until the end of the second week of June no matter how big the plant is, giving it 8 weeks to produce, and keep the rip ones picked. massive productions for our zone.:)

To each his own!

SC
 
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