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Pinching question

coheed196

coheed196

I know that pinching the first few buds promotes growth and all that, but at what point do you stop pinching? Right now I have my plants in pots outside permanently for the season (unless a bad storm rolls through or such) and the plants are probably only about 6 or 7 inches tall and are some of them are already forming buds. I've been pinching like a crazy person every day when I get home from work because I know they are too small to be pushing out loads of pods. I'm just wondering at what point to stop pinching? Say I wait until the plants are 12 or 18 inches tall and start letting the pods set, will the plant continue to put out new growth? If so, I'm sure it would be slower in doing so but would it still grow any?
 
I always pinch them off until they are established outside - which is usually about 2-3 weeks after I plant them out in early May. You have a longer growing season than I do, so you could probably get away with pinching them off for a couple of weeks beyond that. Mine are usually about 18" or more before I let them start pumping out pods. I have been known to let a few set fruit just so I could have fresh pods earlier in the season, however. The ones that I don't pinch off usually produce well, though possibly a little less than the others. It's up to you really.
 
If your not trying to shape a plant such as an ornamental, then I would only pinch before the plant branches (to promote shrublike growth) once, maybe twice. Or at the end of the season to force the plant to produce fruit towards the inside of the plant rather than weighing down the leggy outside branches.

Hmm...kinda sounds like me, a grow different varieties of flowers and as I walk by them I can't help from pinching back to divide the new growth. But thats done to shape...only

Greg
 
What are you feeding them if anything? Plants producing as many pods as your suggesting and only being six or seven inches tall makes me think they're getting an overload of phosphorous. For me I like to see the plants close to 24 inches tall before they start producing flowers. Can't always do much about it but usually after pinching the first few flowers the plant will stop producing them and go back to growing.
 
patrick said:
What are you feeding them if anything? Plants producing as many pods as your suggesting and only being six or seven inches tall makes me think they're getting an overload of phosphorous. For me I like to see the plants close to 24 inches tall before they start producing flowers. Can't always do much about it but usually after pinching the first few flowers the plant will stop producing them and go back to growing.
Click to expand...

I may have exaggerated the "pinching like a crazy person", I usually am only pinching 2 or 3 buds off a few plants. I'm feeding Miracle Grow Tomato food, but only at half strength, and I've only fed them with it once (last week).
 
What species is it? My c. anuums always start flowering early. I don't worry about them because they grow fast.
 
last year was my first yr growing and I had trouble pinching at first too, but the plants that were pinched grew much better and produced way more pods in the end, however as to when to stop pinching that would depend on the plants total estimated height, and the size of the pods,etc. for example, i would not let an 18" plant start growing corno di torro or anaheims, or other 6"-8" pods, JMO
 
I think you will benefit from pinching those varieties. I think what Patrick said is worth looking into (possibility of an overload of phosphorous and pinch until 24 inches).
 
Only feeding once and at half strength sounds fine. The NPK is 18-18-21 which in my opinion are high--even at half strength.
 
Try finding a fertilizer that has more Nitrogen in it than the other two macro-nutrients, that will help you to promote foliage growth and reduce flowering. Also consider pots size - the smaller the more plant will try to produce flowers.
 
Just like what dark side find a fert like 10-2-2 and upgrade the pot size. I found once they get root bound they start producing flowers. I think the best container size for 1 plant would be 15 gallons
 
I've just pinched all my Anaheims, they are too small to make pods this early. I won't be able to bring them outside for almost a month.
 
I have only few Anaheims, Nagabons and Jalapenos. Nagabons are generally much slower than Anaheims and Jalapenos are small because of later seeding.
I have trouble with place by the eastern window, have no idea if western one work OK for peppers...

So, here we are, from the left, Nagabon, Anaheim, Tam Jalapeno, Nagabon, Anaheim, Anaheim, Nagabon (this last one was out to early, you can see the result but it'll live). The biggest Anaheim is around 30cm tall.
 
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