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Cutting off all the leaves, to bring inside

Wulf

Wulf

Last night I brought in all my plants and pruned the leaves. And by pruned, I mean this bush wouldn't be out of place in a gentleman's club, not a leaf in sight.

This morning, I skimmed the overwintering thread and noticed that the pictures there are far less drastic.

The plants will still do fine without leaves, even combined with the shock of being brought in, right? I know I saw a thread somewhere where people were trimming down to just sticks, but I'd just like some confirmation after doing it myself I guess.

Also, I left the peppers on. At least, the peppers that were 30% or more of full size. Will they drop due to shock, or will the full-size ones continue to ripen? Any chance the non-full size ones will continue to grow, or do they need the photosynthesis going on in the leaves to continue?

Side note: While pruning, I saw two ladybug larvae on my plants. They look so much cooler as kids.... I guess that would mean they were eating aphids though, which should reinforce my Scorched Earth leaf-policy.
 
The first year I pruned mine down to "sticks" - the single main stem - you just have to ensure you leave several nodes available. I'd suggest 5 or 6 if you're going to do this severe of a pruning. Last year I did a much less severe pruning, but still fairly significant, and kept all the leaves that remained. A few had pods on them, and they did not drop, but finished ripening. After I removed the ripe pods, I removed the rest of the leaves. I've read elsewhere that sometimes pods will remain on the plant but stop ripening until a bit down the road, at which time they will finish ripening. So I'd suggest keeping them on the plant as long as they don't look like they're rotting.
 
There isn't really a need to prune off leaves, since they will fall off on their own if the plant isn't getting enough light, with the exception that depending on where the plant is, that could create a mess and the leaves could attract bugs.

Certainly all leaves should stay on the plant if attempting to further grow the peppers, otherwise you have done nearly the same thing as pick them off, with the exception that the plant may supply water to them for a few more days so that's a few days longer until they either ripen, dry out, or rot. They will drop off sooner than if you hadn't cut the leaves off but they won't drop off right away unless they were already about to.

Trimming the leaves off won't kill it but will force it into hibernation now, unless it's getting a fair amount of light then it might actually start growing leaves again.

I don't trim my overwintered plants back nearly as much as some people do. I'll cut off any really thin young growth which tends to mean at least the last 3 forks on any branch but it doesn't make any sense to be to trim back all the way to a non-forked stem as portions higher up will directly grow new leaves as well as side shooting branches which gives the plant a boost in the spring.
 
Well, here's how mine look now.

Live and learn I guess. At least aphids shouldn't be a problem.

post-prune.jpg
 
Yup they will do fine. Thats how i make the leavess smaller on my bonsai. I take them al off and leave th etiny tiny buds alone and they come back about 1/3 the size of the previous ones and then progressively come larger and if i just prune the big new ones, but when they all start getting to big I defoliate it and it regrows in abotu 2 weeks fully

Also, cutting the tips off the branches will make the leaf buds flush out and fill up really fast so that helps if you want to kickstart the growth of leaves again
 
Wulf said:
Live and learn I guess. At least aphids shouldn't be a problem.
Click to expand...

Thats exactly why I prune mine down to just stems. The aphids aren't a problem when they have no food source. Also, when the plants are merely stems and re-potted into small pots, its easy to run the plants under the kitchen tap to wash any aphids off.
 
Like Willard3 I trim mine back to 3-4 internodes and trim down the roots to a small fist sized ball then transplant to small 1/2 gallon pots under T8's inside.
 
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