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Pinching Side Shoots or not? Chinense vs Annuum

HabaneroHead

HabaneroHead

Hi Pepperheads,

Another pinch or not to pinch topic, now with picture. :P
My Chinenses (Bhut, TS, Habs) are pumping out side shoots, and getting bushier, but not really growing vertically. In case of the Hungarian Annuums, we always pinch out the lowest side shoots to promote the growth of the plant.
Shall I do something similar in case of the Chinenses? It may take months to fully develop all of these side shoots into side branches...and we do not have a long growing season.
How do you treat them?
What are your experiences?


Balázs

And now the pic.
Bhut in ground, nothing special, not too many shoots, picture was taken 3 weeks ago
HPIM2377.jpg


Bhut in pot, 3 weeks ago, going crazy :drooling:
HPIM2348.jpg
 
Oops I just posted a topic asking the same thing. I should have read the forum before posting. I too am curious of people's thoughts on this.
 
No, let them be IMO! Im getting a decent amount of flowers on my side shoots! Flowers turn to pods, More shoots= more branching. I let the plant decide what it wants to get rid of except for first buds
 
hooda said:
Oops I just posted a topic asking the same thing. I should have read the forum before posting. I too am curious of people's thoughts on this.
Click to expand...

:fireball: I saw it. :P
It just means we were thinking about the same thing.

Thanks guys for stopping by!
Since the plants are in my parent's garden, I can't see them just in every two-three weeks. I instructed my Mom to leave the plants alone, not to follow the same procedure than she does with the Annuums... I am going to post new pics next weekend, when I will travel home..

Balázs
 
I take off the lower ones, when my plant loaded up, the lower branches drug on the ground with pods.

As soon as I harvested those pods on my earlier plants, I bobbed off the lower limbs.
 
With a short growing season the last thing you should ever do is prune a plant. The ideal is that a plant get bushy, not tall. A plant has to exert energy from its limited supply to pump water and nutrients up to the top. The further it has to pump these things the more energy it uses. Side shoots are very good. The only real issue is support, once they get fruit they can be weighed down and break or drag the ground so if they start to bend, tie them up.

To put it another way, vertical plant growth is a bad thing unless it is so close to another plant it needs the height to get sunlight. Otherwise, plants catch more sun with horizontal growth because the sun is in the sky.
 
Depends if your going to over winter them i guess? i think you are right? yours are in bags ready to pull in sept/oct just before winter, so why not? but if you wanted to pinch id pinch the tip off when its a little bigger & that will promote a much bushier plant.

But im guessing you want some fruit on the first year growing, well then you best not pinch.

Mezo.
 
i think pinching would slow the plant's metabolism more than leaving the extra branches. the plant would have to put energy into healing the broken nodes.
 
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