Was it fine to prune

future_man · Jul 28, 2014

I just prunned some of my peppers they had way too much flowers on them and they were still so young. Also some of my plants lacked the width. I want to make them bushy and large before they start growing fruit.

I am wondering did I made the right decision to prune them like I did? Too much? Too less? Pictures of before and after:

Jalapeno:

Habaneros:

Tondo picante:

sp33d · Jul 28, 2014

Depends on the length of your grow season ...they are now gonna go crazy with vegetative growth and get bushy...then it will start to fruit.so you will need more of a growing season now, if that makes sense....but you didn't hurt or kill it , I do the same thing but much earlier In the season...

future_man · Jul 28, 2014

sp33d said:
Depends on the length of your grow season ...they are now gonna go crazy with vegetative growth and get bushy...then it will start to fruit.so you will need more of a growing season now, if that makes sense....but you didn't hurt or kill it , I do the same thing but much earlier In the season...

Yea you are right, I couldn't do it earlier because I started them a bit late (april-may). However we have a whole august and september ahead of us. Maybe even october, some people say october is the harvest month for peppers, so I figured heck 3 months is plenty of time

adnewr · Jul 28, 2014

Did you prune them with a lawnmower?

geeme · Jul 28, 2014

As long as you leave several growth nodes like you did, the plants should be fine. Note they may go into stress for a while - you may not see any growth for a while - but they should recover.

future_man · Jul 28, 2014

adnewr said:
Did you prune them with a lawnmower?

lol why?

Ragnar · Jul 28, 2014

In the future, this late in the season, you may prefer to just pinch flowers off if you want the plant to focus on growth.

That is quite a chop you did. Personally, I'd only prune that much if I were running out of space indoors before the outdoor season starts. All cutting them at this point will do is slow them down, because you're removing growth that the plant is using to create energy.

Just pinch the flowers off next time! Hopefully you'll still get enough peppers for your needs this season.

future_man · Jul 28, 2014

AaronRiot said:
In the future, this late in the season, you may prefer to just pinch flowers off if you want the plant to focus on growth.

That is quite a chop you did. Personally, I'd only prune that much if I were running out of space indoors before the outdoor season starts. All cutting them at this point will do is slow them down, because you're removing growth that the plant is using to create energy.

Just pinch the flowers off next time! Hopefully you'll still get enough peppers for your needs this season.

I was brave because I pruned another plant couple of weeks ago and it is growing like crazy. All of my plants are growing like nuts, so I think in 2 months all will be well. Well it may depend on species. Well if cold weather strikes first I will overwinter them

Ragnar · Jul 28, 2014

Sure, all will be well... but you did chop a lot of your plant off, and you're halfway through summer, in a colder climate, like mine.

Had you wanted more lower branching you could have picked one or two larger stem leaves off. Or just pinched the flower buds. You would get the same result without the set back. Like another member said, most who top (heavily prune) do so in the early spring, often before the plants even see natural sunlight.

They may be growing like nuts but they have to grow back what ya cut before it even counts.

If it were me, next time, I'd do my pruning earlier or not at all, and I'd pinch off early flowers if I want the plant to focus on growing larger before production. Just my greenhorn opinion. YMMV

Zoli · Jul 28, 2014

Too much and too late, IMO, but they will be fine.

future_man · Jul 28, 2014

Thank you for your help, does prunning give the same results as topping? If so why even top like I did?

Ragnar · Jul 28, 2014

Topping is something some people do early in the season to force the plant to bush out. Some people think it works great, others do not.

Those who don't tend to believe the plant will take care of itself... while those that do believe that forcing the plant to grow a particular way will cause a better result than nature.

It's been my experience that the plant will bush out on it's own with no interference so I don't personally prune other than to pick off unhealthy leaves here and there.

That said, if you remove a leaf, a branch will grow there in it's place, but, you don't have to tell the plant to do that because it will do it on it's own when it's ready and has the energy to invest at that particular location. A lot if not most growers will pick just the flowers off to force the plant's energy into growth rather than production. This is an excellent method because you are not removing any growth that the plant is using to create the energy it needs to grow bigger.

Der Metzgermeister · Jul 28, 2014

future_man said:
I just prunned some of my peppers they had way too much flowers on them and they were still so young. Also some of my plants lacked the width. I want to make them bushy and large before they start growing fruit.

I am wondering did I made the right decision to prune them like I did? Too much? Too less? Pictures of before and after:

Jalapeno:

You took off much more than I would have, but it's no problem...you will see the results you want eventually.They might not be as productive as they would have otherwise been this season, but you can always overwinter them. I'd go so far as to take off that last pepper and flower so the plant can put more energy into growing new vegetation. Also, when it comes to pruning in general, I always cut back to the nodes as opposed to in the middle of the internodes. New growth will only happen at the nodes, and the portions of stem you left above the nodes will die off.

Dave2000 · Jul 28, 2014

I second the "too much too late". What they needed most was a larger pot, and if you must, to pick a few of the blooms off. Also, annuums aren't as effective at filling in at the bottom as chinense, they are naturally a taller less bushy plant... but now your pots might be big enough to last the season without stunting them.