tutorial A Simple Guide to Topping and Pruning

FIMed Poinsettia pepper, new growth in a week:
 
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EDIT: Going to add a 2 week picture on Friday, this thing is looking great
 
 
...this is a two week shot, I forgot I had taken it and never uploaded it.  I actually gave this particular plant to a friend, I'm going to see her this weekend and can get a one month shot of it :)
 
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maximumcapsicum said:
I stripped the lower leaves from a bunch of plants, many of which are their leaves on the step. Do you guys think I should cut back this secondary growth to make a canopy or leave it?
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Lets see a pic.
 
Pics
 
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Bear in mind I was going for a canopy, following the pruning guidelines Spicy Chicken and Sørenson discuss in their various info outlets. Plenty of new growth on those nodes... hardy, outdoor growth too... Just wondering whether I should cut it back to encourage more canopy growth or let it go. Guess I should just trim it when it starts getting shaded.
 
I'm new to the forum, so I'd rather not get into an argument, but I wanna add my opinion. I prune up to the "V" in my peppers. I remove every single branch from the V to the soil (and I choose the time variably.) I prune them away upon transplanting, then again at the time when (if my peppers were humans) they're just learning to drive. I also clip any leaves that don't look awesome. 
 
After this pruning, the stalk thickens up, and fresh growth explodes. I never have to stake my peppers, and they grow incredibly 12in away from each other in a raised bed.
 
I don't agree with this Topping method either--unless you prefer smaller plants, need a quicker yield (short season) or you prefer beauty over pepper yield. All you're doing is stunting the plant and getting a quick growth to tickle your fancy. It might make you feel awesome, tinkering with mother nature, but honestly, you're doing yourself a disservice.
 
Last year's yield: I ate fresh cayenne's all year, gave away many pounds. I also made 28 quarts of hot sauce. I still have a big zip lock bag full of dried fruit. How many cayenne plants did it take to yield so much? 1 (uno) 

Topping a plant is for the impatient gardener. Impatient gardener=oxymoron.
 
@Farmer Jones,
 
Your whole post is an oxymoron.  Nobody feels cool tinkering with mother nature.  You first stated you prune all the way up the plant until the split.  Does that give you your quick fix and make you feel cool cause you yourself are tinkering with mother nature right there.  "Growth explodes",  well no shit.  Thats basically the whole point about pruning or topping.  Please don't post if you don't know what your talking about.  I understand it is highly debatable subject,  but no one is trying to be "cool" by topping their plants.  You completely and totally contradict yourself in your post.  Have fun with all your cayennes oh mighty gardener!
 
FarmerJones said:
I'm new to the forum, so I'd rather not get into an argument, but I wanna add my opinion. I prune up to the "V" in my peppers. I remove every single branch from the V to the soil (and I choose the time variably.) I prune them away upon transplanting, then again at the time when (if my peppers were humans) they're just learning to drive. I also clip any leaves that don't look awesome. 
 
After this pruning, the stalk thickens up, and fresh growth explodes. I never have to stake my peppers, and they grow incredibly 12in away from each other in a raised bed.
 
I don't agree with this Topping method either--unless you prefer smaller plants, need a quicker yield (short season) or you prefer beauty over pepper yield. All you're doing is stunting the plant and getting a quick growth to tickle your fancy. It might make you feel awesome, tinkering with mother nature, but honestly, you're doing yourself a disservice.
 
Last year's yield: I ate fresh cayenne's all year, gave away many pounds. I also made 28 quarts of hot sauce. I still have a big zip lock bag full of dried fruit. How many cayenne plants did it take to yield so much? 1 (uno) 

Topping a plant is for the impatient gardener. Impatient gardener=oxymoron.
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FarmerJones said:
I'm new to the forum, so I'd rather not get into an argument, but I wanna add my opinion. I prune up to the "V" in my peppers. I remove every single branch from the V to the soil (and I choose the time variably.) I prune them away upon transplanting, then again at the time when (if my peppers were humans) they're just learning to drive. I also clip any leaves that don't look awesome. 
 
After this pruning, the stalk thickens up, and fresh growth explodes. I never have to stake my peppers, and they grow incredibly 12in away from each other in a raised bed.
 
I don't agree with this Topping method either--unless you prefer smaller plants, need a quicker yield (short season) or you prefer beauty over pepper yield. All you're doing is stunting the plant and getting a quick growth to tickle your fancy. It might make you feel awesome, tinkering with mother nature, but honestly, you're doing yourself a disservice.
 
Last year's yield: I ate fresh cayenne's all year, gave away many pounds. I also made 28 quarts of hot sauce. I still have a big zip lock bag full of dried fruit. How many cayenne plants did it take to yield so much? 1 (uno) 

Topping a plant is for the impatient gardener. Impatient gardener=oxymoron.
Click to expand...
This is the dumbest shit I've read in a while on here.
 
I'd be happy to match yields with you. There's a big difference in pruning and topping. Topping early in a plant's life does NOT increase pepper yields. That's a mistake. Topping late in the season will increase yield but should ONLY be done after the plant has reached maturity. I prune up to the V or Y what have you. This causes the stalk to thicken which eliminates the need for staking. The topping that you guys are advocating only makes the plant bushy and will decrease its productivity.
 
Perhaps you should read some university studies before name calling. I base my opinions on SCIENCE and EXPERIENCE. When you do this topping, it's gonna make you feel really awesome to see so much activity on the plant at such a young age, but if you'd waited until maturity, you would have gotten a more desirable result. 
 
Keep topping if it makes you feel better. It's common sense to know that chopping the top off a young plant that's not even halfway to maturity size will stunt its growth lol. "Oooh look how I stressed this plant out! See how it's all leafy at the stem now! It's almost a BUSH! Yaaaay!" Why is FarmerJones' plants so thick at the stalk? How did his plants get so TALL and support SO MUCH FRUIT? lol

I understand that some of you may not want 4 ft tall cayennes with branches longer than my arm (no staking needed), but I do. Get your bush on.
 
Back in college there was a saying, 'you can train a tomato to do what you want but you got to let a pepper do what it wants.' The idea was that topping and pruning didn't really help with peppers and usually led to lower yields. That said, a lot of peppers can get over-burdened and break in a storm so an occasional top pruning can keep them strong. Fewer peppers but a stronger plant. FarmerJones' method of strengthening the main stem sounds reasonable while judicious topping/pruning can help with types of peppers that get tall and fragile as well.
 
Maybe it is true that under the right circumstances either method is helpful. I would be inclined to not top every pepper in every garden because a lot of times the payoff of a bushier plant isn't really doing anything for you since you'll get more energy spent re-growing foliage and less on fruit production. Still, I have grudgingly topped a few peppers when they seemed like they were getting scraggly  or unruly.
 
I enjoy this thread and the varying opinions...
 
I only top some of my plants, usually I have at least two of each variety and one will sometimes get topped.  I find that those topped usually produce more.  Topping and pruning makes for healthier nodes, hands down.  If you start your seeds early enough, "stunting" the plant is not an issue.  Peppers grow, bloom, and fruit simultaneously anyways.
 
There's also the issue of weather, when you live in a volatile sub-climate like Piedmont Virginia you need short, stocky, beefcake plants to protect against brutal thunderstorms and late season hurricanes.  Mostly I achieve this by starting indoors under lights but topping adds an extra beefcake factor to it.  The reason I topped that Fatalii I posted a while back is because it's in a very large pot and it's already proven to be an aggressive rooter and can easily support the excess pods I'll likely be getting from it.  As an experiment I have two other Fataliis in fabric pots that have not been topped, one in my homemade soil mix and the other in Ocean Forest. 
 
 
Also a quick question...anyone growing the Bhut X Neyde tried topping them?  They seem really fragile and have started getting nodes (unlike my PDNs themselves which don't have nodes).  I'm wondering if this will help beef them up a bit.
 
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