is it correct to remove flowers off a young chilli?

K

Karmicguide

I recently bought an orange habanero chilli from bunnings (a hardware store/nursery). when I bought it, it was about 4 inches (10 cm) tall, and it's probably 20 cm tall (8 inches).
 
It's started to flower at the top of the plant now, and I can see a few more nodes at the top. I'm wondering - is it better to remove the flowers to help the chilli grow larger and produce more fruit?
 
For reference:
 
15496704846_7a041086bd_c.jpg
 
Depends on the plant for me, some plants are already quite strong and make good strong full sized buds at the first node(s). Ill usually leave them to do there thing.
Some plants are less developed when they start forking/budding and make small runty buds at the first nodes..ill usually remove them because they don't have much chance of setting & making it anyway.
 
I have two brown bhutlah's that are budding. One made 5 full sized flowers at the first node. I left them and most have set and are gowing pods.
The second one made little runty buds at the first node, i removed those, and the buds at the next forks are looking much more mature and normal sized..ill probably leave those :)
 
That appears to be very hairy for a Habernero :/
 
That said many choose to remove the flower buds, i don't. I just let it do it's thing.
 
You get pods earlier!
 
yeah it DOES look very hairy in the pic. Maybe i zoomed in too much to show the buds.
 
I'll see how this one goes - I feel like I'm cheating by buying a seedling instead of running seeds. I'm going to be planting a heap of eggplants/chilli plants this weekend (most of my plants have 8-10 true leaves now and it's warming up slowly).
 
How is NSW going? spring kicking in?
 
Karmicguide said:
How is NSW going? spring kicking in?
Click to expand...
 
Well it was kicking in! Then the last couple of days it turned cold, last night was freezing!
 
By the sound of things though the warmer weather is just around the corner, maybe even a heat wave on it's way. Stupid erratic nature!
 
Don't feel bad about buying starts from Bunnings, hell i don't! :D   It's nice to have something to actually "grow" whilst you wait for your seedlings to get a bit bigger.
I recently got some Jalapeno's, Tabasco's and Purple Tiger seedlings from Bunnings, they are going great, even though the Jal's were started eight to a container and needed seperating and the Purple Tigers were four to a container and had to be seperated as well.
 
The Tabasco's were three to a container so i murdered the smallest one and will be keeping the other two growing together as they don't seem to mind that.
 
The Jal's will certainly take off when this weather changes for the better, with the conditions we have now they are still growing rather fast. I also got some cherry toms and strawberry plants (not that i eat strawberries, they are for the missus and kids). They are starting to put out fruit already :)
 
Garretts Bitch said:
Well it was kicking in! Then the last couple of days it turned cold, last night was freezing!
 
By the sound of things though the warmer weather is just around the corner, maybe even a heat wave on it's way. Stupid erratic nature!
Click to expand...
 
Sounds like vic - it's currently raining and freezing  - next Tuesday will be 31 degrees! my jalapenos are going quite well ina small greenhouse so I might have to separate them out - have 4 plants in a 100mm pot.
 
 
i'm planting out seedlings this weekend so I might protect them with mulch so the cold doesn't mess with them. it's starting to feel like spring is just around the corner :)
 
I've got a banana chili plant at about that stage... previously i just let them be... this year im going to remove the early flowers, hoping for some stronger plants...
 
i certainly dont seem to have a green thumb... most of my plants are tiny compared to some of the monsters ive seen posted around here LOL
 
You've already got a young plant, and have a reasonably long growing season.  I'd just let them do their thing.
A few early pods are good for grower morale, and (purely IMO) don't take all that much energy out of the plant.
 
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