The Hot Pepper

heh. I don't have it quite that bad, but I'm starting to get closer to probably more cultivars than I should have. I think I have or soon will have 12 varieties and some of their spawn. At least a majority of those aren't reproducing yet..

Those things are the devil. We took ours out. So messy, the juice stains everything. The bananas were good, tropical feel, but the Santa Ana winds wrecked havoc and made them look bad. You can let them go for awhile, but then you have to deal with them, etc.

I try to keep mine maintained as much as I can. I let my Blue Java go a bit too long, so I'm monitoring its off shoots more closely now

Yea it was horrible. And the wind does tear them up and look horrible. These had 4 years without being messed with. I dug out 40 plus pounds of root balls. And only got one bunch of bananas out of that many trees. So I said F that I'm clearing it out and putting peppers...

I am told that if you let the plants get too big (don't properly maintain them,) it perhaps can adversely affect the fruit production. Ideally I am told you want about no more than 3-4 psuedostems per plant. If you let them grow too long without taking care of them, it sounds like you get in the range of the problem you are describing with just one bunch of fruit. If you are talking about 50 individual plants that have been reasonably well maintained, then I'm not sure what to tell yo...