need advice on how to Prune my chillipepper

G

Generowicz

hey guys.

First of all i would like to say its good to be back.
 
my chili is currently inside due to seasonal snow.
last growing season i started much to late and this one didn't form any pods :(
 
since i live in a fairly small apartment i would like to prune the plant a little and would love some advice
i would personally think it would be amazing if it grew a bit taller. or would you leave the plant as is

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Hey Generowicz.  What's your source of light for the plant and what do you want to accomplish while it's inside - grow slow, grow bigger, produce pods?
 
BTW - that's a great looking plant!  What variety is it?
 
i believe its a Trinidad Moruga scorpion, its either that or the Bhut jolokia

in the winter its inside under normal led room lights, however in the summer i keep it outside and it gets loads of sunlight
i would ideally like to make it grow a taller and bit more bushy.

the pods can wait till winter is over. 
 
i have a LED grow light is required, however i would prefer not using it 
 
 
Cool!  BJ or Scorp, either way you win!
 
Well, if I were going to try to fruit it (requiring keeping it under light), I'd probably maintain that nice wide even canopy you have, maybe removing a few larger leaves now and again to open up just a little space and watching for suckers/shoots growing from low that might get stretchy and have poor access to light.  It might take some lateral control if it tried to keep getting wider, but I wouldn't do a lot to it. 
 
If I had a decent window facing south or otherwise getting enough direct light in and I didn't care to fruit it, I'd try to get it growing more centered and growing upward versus the squat wide profile. To create the base for that, I'd prune it back a fair amount, but not a hard-core OW prune to almost a stick.  I think I'd cut those two main laterals well back on the horizontal - it's hard to tell from a picture exactly where I'd do it, but the idea being leave at least a couple growth nodes closer to the center of the plant while not leaving it so wide that the branches are too weak to support future upward growth.  Also, I'd probably tie up that growth shoot facing front to reign it in a little versus the plant getting too wide again. 
 
After the plant adjusted to the prune and started to show new grow shoots, probably within a week, I'd consider whether the center of the plant was crowded and, if so, I'd see if it made sense to remove a few of the larger leaves from the center where they may be blocking air circulation or light into the central laterals. When the lower main stem produced laterals, I'd probably let a limited number grow in if they made sense to fill out the plant, but others I'd let grow a few nodes and then top them as a base for future growth outside or remove them altogether; it's hard to say until you see how the plant is responding and filling out.
 
Anyhow, that's my $0.02.  Hope that gives you some ideas. Curious what others think.
CD
 
 
 
Not that I recommend it for you, but here is what I ultimately do with most of my overwinters:

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This is a Rocoto tha had grown long in the legs last season and lost the leaves on the main stem. After the last pod was harvested I trimmed back to the first branching nodes beyond the original first fork in hopes to promote development of those nodes down the stem.

If you look closely, it is working. I did this last winter as well on a couple of overwintered Bacaatums, but I unfortunately waited till mid-Spring to trim and the plants took an unexpectedly long time to come out of shock and produce.

CaneDog gives good advice.
 
stettoman said:
Not that I recommend it for you, but here is what I ultimately do with most of my overwinters:

attachicon.gif
20190115_163635.jpg

This is a Rocoto tha had grown long in the legs last season and lost the leaves on the main stem. After the last pod was harvested I trimmed back to the first branching nodes beyond the original first fork in hopes to promote development of those nodes down the stem.

If you look closely, it is working. I did this last winter as well on a couple of overwintered Bacaatums, but I unfortunately waited till mid-Spring to trim and the plants took an unexpectedly long time to come out of shock and produce.

CaneDog gives good advice.
Click to expand...
 

Thanks Stettoman.  I like the level of pruning you did on that.  Seems like a very happy medium and should be a solid base.  I'm looking forward to seeing how your Pube's do in 2019 with all the groundwork you've laid.  Could be a banner year!  Looks like you root pruned and down-sized that one to a smaller pot along with the cut-back - ?
 
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