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

tutorial A Simple Guide to Topping and Pruning

Jamison

Jamison

This will be a simple guide to topping and pruning your plants. For me its a MUST to do one or the other and a lot of times both to my plants. Its an easy way to get your plants to bush out and produce more pods. Some people don't like to do this, and some people are either scared or nervous to start chopping their plants. It gives a huge advantage to the plant IMO. Heres is how I do it and I'll explain with pictures and hopefully people won't be scared to do this. Here we go.


Pruning:

Pruning is simply removing leaves to let light into the middle of the plant. Ever noticed leaves trying to grow from a node?

What its wanting to do is grow. Only one problem, its not getting the light it needs to do so. This is where pruning comes in. By sinply removing the leaf or leaves that are shading that node, you've now opened it up to the light.

Easy right? You will eventually start to see a branch at that node. You can do this to as many nodes you want. Just make sure to leave a bit of foliage at the bottom for photosynthesis. Your plant will eventually look like this.



Topping:

Topping can be a stressful thing to do for the grower simply because you've nurtured that seed to the beautiful plant it is now. But in the long run, the results far outweigh your worries. Topping is simply cutting the plant at the desired point above any set of nodes.

Snip if off there and your plant will begin to "Y" and result in two main branches at the top. That send signals throughout the plant to GROW beneath the cut. They have a mind of their own believe it or not. I like to do this in the seedling stage if I'm not going to prune. That's an awesome way to create more nodes for buds. More nodes = more flowers, which in the end results in more pods!

Below are two plants one was pruned and one was topped just so you guys can see exactly what happens in the long run.

Topped plant:



Pruned plant:




Hope this helps anyone with questions about this subject. Please feel free to add your input and ask any question and I'll be glad to answer the best I can. Thanks!
 
Thanks for the guide !

I've already tried prunning but not topping. I'll try this year on some of them. How old must be the plant for a good topping ? Can you do multi-topping ?
 
Great info Jamison! Could you elaborate as to how doing both to the same plant will effect it. Ive topped and pruned to the same plant which resulted in very short bushy plants with numerous nodes.

Would doing this be too stressfull?

I also noticed when i topped only compared to topping and pruning, that the latter produced much quicker growth.
 
PHB said:
Thanks for the guide !

I've already tried prunning but not topping. I'll try this year on some of them. How old must be the plant for a good topping ? Can you do multi-topping ?
Click to expand...

You can top at any time you want! Topping pretty much redirects hormones (mainly auxin and gibberellins) to the lower branches of the plant, which is what allows them to branch out. So yes, you can top as much as you want, just don't top too many at a time because you reduce the number of leaves available for photosynthetic activity. I would suggest starting out by topping once and seeing how the plant reacts, and then you can top more based on that.

What I like to do is top maybe one or two tops at a time, and then make clones from the branches that I topped.
 
idosimon said:
You can top at any time you want! Topping pretty much redirects hormones (mainly auxin and gibberellins) to the lower branches of the plant, which is what allows them to branch out. So yes, you can top as much as you want, just don't top too many at a time because you reduce the number of leaves available for photosynthetic activity. I would suggest starting out by topping once and seeing how the plant reacts, and then you can top more based on that.

What I like to do is top maybe one or two tops at a time, and then make clones from the branches that I topped.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the answer. It's probably off topic, but do you have good results with clones ? I mean does it become a fully mature healthy plant you can keep ?
 
PHB said:
Thanks for the answer. It's probably off topic, but do you have good results with clones ? I mean does it become a fully mature healthy plant you can keep ?
Click to expand...

It depends. The healthier and more vigorous the branch is, the better results that you will get. For instance, I took two clones from my bahamian goat pepper like a month ago, one from the bottom, and one from where I topped the plant. The bottom one died pretty quickly, but the top one is doing well and has finally rooted (basil can root in like 10 days, but the pepper I'm growing is extremely slow.)

Yeah it should become a fully mature and healthy plant, just make sure that you take a good quality clone.
 
I'm glad you posted this. I'm not unfamiliar with topping and pruning, but I've hesitated to do it until now because I thought my plants were still too small. For each variety that I have more than one plant for, I have now topped one and left the other one alone. It'll make for a nice little experiment.

Again, thanks for posting this.
 
PHB said:
Thanks for the guide !

I've already tried prunning but not topping. I'll try this year on some of them. How old must be the plant for a good topping ? Can you do multi-topping ?
Click to expand...

My suggestion for the youngest you can top a plant would to be when its on its third set of true leaves topping above the second set of nodes. Yes you can multi top. Top the two tops that come out of your first topping and now you will have 4 so on and so forth. Thanks for reading!

holyhotpeppers said:
Great info Jamison! Could you elaborate as to how doing both to the same plant will effect it. Ive topped and pruned to the same plant which resulted in very short bushy plants with numerous nodes.

Would doing this be too stressfull?

I also noticed when i topped only compared to topping and pruning, that the latter produced much quicker growth.

Topping and pruning at the same time will just keep adding chutes and branches at different nodes at the same time. Which is what we are going for here. I don't find it to be stressful whatsoever to the plant. In fact I think it helps it along quite nicely. There is plenty of roots to support all the new growth. And yes I agree topping and pruning at the same time produces quicker growth because your letting a lot more light into the middle of the plant which allows for more photosynthesis at the nodes. The more light the better IMO. Thanks for reading my guide!
Click to expand...
coheed196 said:
Good job Jamison, I'm sure this info will help alot of people with questions.

I like the photo comparisons, Thanks
Click to expand...

Thanks Coheed, I really appreciate that!

compmodder26 said:
I'm glad you posted this. I'm not unfamiliar with topping and pruning, but I've hesitated to do it until now because I thought my plants were still too small. For each variety that I have more than one plant for, I have now topped one and left the other one alone. It'll make for a nice little experiment.

Again, thanks for posting this.
Click to expand...

Exactly what I intended this guide for was people that were hesitant about doing so. You'll notice a huge difference between plants, I guarantee it bud! Thanks for the kind word Comp, much appreciated!
 
Nice guide. I have a Bhut and Trinidad in an aerogarden and they have pruned themselves really. Leaves would get to big and fall off. At first I was worried about the plant but now I'm noticing a ton of new growth.
 
Heres a little side by side of the same pepper from one pod. The left was topped March 21 and right was untouched.
click for a larger image
ZR1RKwF.jpg


A pic of the fork

jdY4h5q.jpg
 
i've always wondered how big they should get before i start snipping away... thanks so much for posting this. i started unintentionally doing it last year once the leaves got about the size of my hand but never really paid attention to just how much it makes a difference. this will be a key part of this year's growing technique :)

is there any benefit to halving large leaves, lengthwise, so they continue photosynthetic activity and at the same time let more light in?
 
Thanks for the excellent beginner's guide.

I've not been too scared to try topping mine, I just never knew the proper way to before!
 
Yumyumyellow said:
i've always wondered how big they should get before i start snipping away... thanks so much for posting this. i started unintentionally doing it last year once the leaves got about the size of my hand but never really paid attention to just how much it makes a difference. this will be a key part of this year's growing technique :)

is there any benefit to halving large leaves, lengthwise, so they continue photosynthetic activity and at the same time let more light in?
Click to expand...

IMO large leaves do nothing besides shade light. Granted their taking in photosynthesis, but also shading what photosynthesis could happen if that makes sense. I don't think ripping length wise would be a great idea. Might just end up killing that leaf anyways. Once a leaf is "hurt" the plant will just start sucking good nutrients trying to fix that leaf which will never happen. I like to remove all big leaves, as I notice leaves trying to come out of the node.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top