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yield Increasing Crop Yield

PeriPeri

PeriPeri

Hey all,

This is a question to all the green fingered Chilli-heads.

Ok, so I got little chilli plants at about the eight leaf stage. What are the tips and trick to increase crop yield with chillies? Can crop yield be increased by watering? Can crop yield be increased through supplementing with certain minerals? Can crop yield be increased through pruning techniques?.... At what stage of the plants development?
 
there is no secret formula I know of, if anyone knows one: please inform me!

All I can think of is to: water with a high nitrogen fertiliser. Give it plenty of sunlight to encourage more branches (equals more nodes and pods) It will grow big with dark green leaves. Then when the first few buds appear, pinch them off to promote further growth (makes it taller and wider). Your flower buds will come back, then switch to a more potassium based fertiliser (I use tomato feed at half strength). This will promote a good build up of nice sized fruit.

Well hopefully anyway. Good luck :)
 
Hi Guys,

I think I may experiment with your different techniques to see which is the most effective.

Thanks

PeriPeri
 
If you have a long growing season you can prune the plant back early, that'll produce more stems, foliage, flowers, and Fruit, take's time but works..!
I'm not saying the pods will be larger, in most cases not, but if your looking for quanity its worth the try.
On the other extreme,...with my tomato plants I'll pick one of the super large varieties and do the opposite, I'll strip all the small fruit off the plant only leaving 1 large Tomato, that forces the plant to produce its energy into that tomato ...I have extra plants so I can afford test the grounds.....just trying to get that 2 or more lb. tomato...
 
PIC 1 said:
If you have a long growing season you can prune the plant back early, that'll produce more stems, foliage, flowers, and Fruit, take's time but works..!
I'm not saying the pods will be larger, in most cases not, but if your looking for quanity its worth the try.
On the other extreme,...with my tomato plants I'll pick one of the super large varieties and do the opposite, I'll strip all the small fruit off the plant only leaving 1 large Tomato, that forces the plant to produce its energy into that tomato ...I have extra plants so I can afford test the grounds.....just trying to get that 2 or more lb. tomato...
Click to expand...
Great bit of info, thank you PIC1
 
I did a selective pruning experiment this year and although it did improve my harvest from the same plant in the same container last year my best improvement by far was to simply give the plant a bigger container. Since I don't have any ground to grow from I decided to make a larger earth box type of container for 2 plants, but stepped up to a 30 gallon container instead of the 10-15 the earthbox uses and the results made the difference. I still fertilize often, and supplement with worm tea every other feeding, but that really helps keep the plant healthy and pest free.
 
Thanks guys. So there are quite a few things emerging now that would increase the crop yield. This is great. Get to know and test all the different options!
 
If your soil is RIGHT, your container is large enough, your root zone is kept cool, and you allow them plenty of Sun/water then you should get so many pods that you have to give em away on THP just not to waste em. :)
 
The best thing I can suggest is to increase the length of your season with lights or a greenhouse in spring/fall. Maybe you won't really need to in Florida but many of us here have very short seasons
 
LGHT said:
I did a selective pruning experiment this year and although it did improve my harvest from the same plant in the same container last year my best improvement by far was to simply give the plant a bigger container. Since I don't have any ground to grow from I decided to make a larger earth box type of container for 2 plants, but stepped up to a 30 gallon container instead of the 10-15 the earthbox uses and the results made the difference. I still fertilize often, and supplement with worm tea every other feeding, but that really helps keep the plant healthy and pest free.
Click to expand...


+1...LGHT

Size does matter...
 
Hi Guys,

I had bought some peppers (californian wonder & baby belles) from the nursery about a month ago which were already budding. I had planted these in my planters and they were already budding, but were lacking spread. So I took your advice and topped them; just trimmed off the buds and shoots at the top. Since then I have been supplementing with a a Nitrogen rich fert and can see new growth/shoots developing in all the armpits/branches. Looks like topping the chillies is a great tip! Have done the same with the tomatoes and that's also working a charm, thanks!

I will try and get some worm tea from somewhere... would love to try that still.

Here in South Africa, our grow season will generally go from August till April. The rest of the year daytime temps hover around the 20˚C mark. Today will be 38˚C, but I think it has more to do with the 4000ft altitude that makes the UV a killer here. Shade netting is my best friend. I have learned the hard way. Even early morning sun is enough to frazzle the chillies.

I'm also a little stuck with regards to big containers. Not quite sure how I'll get around this problem, but I will try and give them as much space as is possible. Bigger roots, bigger plants... I can appreciate that.

I am in the process of creating a nursery for the potted plants... Am thinking of creating a planter in this nursery to possibly create more space for the chillies to grow.

Thanks all for your info. Its helping me loads! I will upload images as soon as I get a chance.
 
Side passage with shade netting... the nursery
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PeriPeri easy growing here
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My sole surviving Bishops Crown :( maybe I will have better luck with these next year. Its been a learning curve for the first year.
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One of the California Wonder peppers I bought from the nursery. This one I have chopped buds of top. Can't capture it on Cellphone, but its already got new grown on the branches/armpits.
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New Nursery under construction. Will cover with shade netting. Will put adult potted chillies from nursery here. Am considering putting a planter in here possibly to give chillies more grow space... not sure really.
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Also need to consider separating the super-hots from the milder chillies. It would be nice not to dirty the gene pool due to cross pollination... so I'm slowly beginning to concern myself with how to keep them apart? Each super-hot may need an individual shade net possibly?
 
Novacastrian,

Seriously how does one ensure that the super-hots don't hybridize with the milder chillies. How do most chilli growers ensure their ButchT seeds harvested are ButchT the next season and not ButchT x Numex lol? I suppose the only way is to keep those birds and bees out of the picture?
 
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