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Pinching off...should I?

Should I be pinching these guys off? there's about 5 or so buds, and one of them is about to flower. These are grown indoors with no fans using 8-inch pots, and from the soil to the top of the plant, they are about 8 inches tall, with the widest span about 8-10inches.

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its a tough choice; it can help them produce more later, but if you dont pinch them off you can get fruit earlier.. you should have a fan on those however to stimulate stock thickening, otherwise they may be too weak when fruit sets
 
Sid03SVT said:
its a tough choice; it can help them produce more later, but if you dont pinch them off you can get fruit earlier.. you should have a fan on those however to stimulate stock thickening, otherwise they may be too weak when fruit sets

QFT

Fatter stems = fatter fruits
fan = fatter stems
∴ fan = fatter fruits
 
Adrian, this was my first year starting from seed and I too had this dilemma and I found that this was a difficult chore to do because it seemed so cruel. But, the plants that I did pinch off the buds turned out to be quite productive. For me I used a small pair of scissors that simply cut off the buds. I did this until it was almost time to plant out. Nice looking plants BTW :)
 
I dont know if made that much of a difference honestly - once they started growing and blooming it seemed they were all on the same page. I noticed the first fruit set didnt do that well on the ones I didnt pinch still grew though
 
Some people swear on it and I have been doing it, too. I didn't note any positive results, though. Dave DeWitt once said that the only difference it is gonna make is that you'll harvest one pepper less!
 
Every plant i've pinched off or cut back has always grown back to triple the size it was before i did. I did this with my bhuts and they're now producing ALOT, but my dumb luck is that it's too late in the season and i won't have but a few ripe fruits.

So yes, pinch it back. If it were me, i'd just cut the first 2-3inches off the top. It'll grow back. The plant looks very happy and healthy.

Example, if i don't pinch back my basil, it produces like crap. If i do pinch it, i get quadruple the volume i would have if i didn't.
 
It does seem as though the early flowers do drop in most cases. In my experience I havent noticed a marked difference
 
I'm going to try cutting 3" off the top and put some cloning gel and stickign it in a small pot, then i'll have the best of both worlds I guess.
 
That is definitely going to make the branches on the side grow much more, your plants look pretty bushy already, that should add to it!
 
I personally am against pinching, cutting back or any other physical intervention. I manipulate mine with different types of lights, temps and nutrients.
 
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