harvesting Poll: Harvesting - Pick or Snip Pods

Do you pick/pull your pods or snip the pods off with a tool?

  • Pick/Pull pods from the pepper plant.

    Votes: 15 62.5%

  • Snip pods with clippers or another tool.

    Votes: 11 45.8%
  • Total voters
    24
DontPanic

DontPanic

When harvesting your pods, I want to find out how many people here in the THP community pick/pull their pods from the stalk, and how many use clippers/scissors to snip the pod from the stalk.
 
I've been using clippers to snip the pods about half-way between the pod and the stalk, which leaves a nub on the stalk.  I've noticed that I seldom have another pepper pod on the nodes that have these old stubs.
 
This question was brought up 5 years ago in the forum:
 
http://thehotpepper.com/topic/31013-picking-pods-or-snipping/
 
I was hoping to revisit this topic, and use a poll to get a better idea of what the community is doing.
 
I was wondering if anybody had any insights on how either method affects the growth and productivity of the pepper plant?
 
I do both, actually.  I prefer to snip, but the other leaves and stems can get in the way, and it's harder to directly guide scissors/snips/knives to the stem.  

I really do enjoy picking, though.  Bend back 'til it snaps off.  There's something a little satisfying each time.
 
I pick them. If it's a pepper with a thicker stem I bend it until it snaps at the base. If it's a thin stem I jam the nail of my thumb in there somewhere and just pull. I like the feeling of picking with my bare hands, I dunno. Never used a tool.
 
Picking, hands down. I don't like to see the rest of the stem shrivel and dry up on the plant. Just as NinjaR says, pull opposite the direction of growth and you get a satisfying 'pop' and a beautiful pepper with stem. comes off.
 
I took encouragement from all the people who pick their peppers instead of clipping them, so I went out to harvest some peppers, making sure to pull in the opposite direction.
 
I got about 5 peppers before I broke my first branch off.  :D
 
That's OK, it gave me a spontaneous opportunity to play with topping a plant.
 
DontPanic said:
I took encouragement from all the people who pick their peppers instead of clipping them, so I went out to harvest some peppers, making sure to pull in the opposite direction.
 
I got about 5 peppers before I broke my first branch off.  :D
 
That's OK, it gave me a spontaneous opportunity to play with topping a plant.
Click to expand...
 
 
Zone 8b?
 
This could also be a spontaneous opportunity to try your hand at propagating.  :)
 
Spork said:
Zone 8b?
 
This could also be a spontaneous opportunity to try your hand at propagating.  :)
Click to expand...
For many peppers, my climate's ideal. I have a really long growing season, which should allow me to play with some of the peppers that produce later than the typical pepper.

But a lot of common peppers have been acclimated over the years to grow in cooler climates, and won't grow well here.

I'm looking forward to experimenting with figuring out which peppers grow well here, and which won't.

A lot of the Caribbean pepper should do well here, so I don't feel quite so deprived that I can't grow bell peppers.
 
DontPanic said:
For many peppers, my climate's ideal. I have a really long growing season, which should allow me to play with some of the peppers that produce later than the typical pepper.

But a lot of common peppers have been acclimated over the years to grow in cooler climates, and won't grow well here.

I'm looking forward to experimenting with figuring out which peppers grow well here, and which won't.

A lot of the Caribbean pepper should do well here, so I don't feel quite so deprived that I can't grow bell peppers.
Click to expand...
 
 
I mean you can try to root the branch that broke off, plant it outdoors, and still be able to harvest during your long season! If you saved the branch, that is. With regards to the branch breaking in the first place: I find that when a pepper is fully ripe it comes off much easier than a 'close to ripe' pepper of the same variety. Often if I give them a tug and they don't pop off, I will leave them for the next time I'm picking.
 
It is surprising that Bell Peppers won't grow there. I have never intentionally grown them, but I had lots of them grow in 10b when I bought seeds from eBay  :shame:. Have you tried sourcing local seeds or growing other sweet varieties, like a banana pepper?
 
Spork said:
I mean you can try to root the branch that broke off, plant it outdoors, and still be able to harvest during your long season!
Click to expand...
Ah! Now I see what you're getting at.

It was just a Cayenne plant. It didn't even occur to me at the time since I have 4 other Cayennes, and I didn't really even do that much damage to this one.

But you're right. It would be interesting to play around with getting some snippings to take root. It would have been a good chance to experiment.

Spork said:
It is surprising that Bell Peppers won't grow there. I have never intentionally grown them, but I had lots of them grow in 10b when I bought seeds from eBay :shame:. Have you tried sourcing local seeds or growing other sweet varieties, like a banana pepper?
Click to expand...
10b? Interesting! Talking with other people in my area, I'm not alone with problems growing Bell Peppers. Maybe we're all trying the wrong seeds.

Even though many Bell Peppers can handle heat (such as the central valley in CA), some of the common varieties don't like our warm, humid nights. Tomatoes are the same way. We have a difficult time growing Tomatoes here since the nights don't cool down enough.

With respect to finding local seeds or playing with other sweet varieties, I'm looking forward to exploring those avenues. I haven't run across a "certified" seed vendor catering to our climate. Maybe I just haven't discovered that vendor yet, or maybe I just need to develop a network of local people to trade seeds.

But one of my goals is to either figure out how to grow Bell Peppers here, or find alternative peppers that grow well. To be honest, I'm more interested in finding the alternative peppers. A lot of food I end up cooking uses the Cajun trinity (Celery, Bell Pepper, and Onion). So I'm on a quest to grow my own peppers instead of buying grocery store Bell Pepper.
 
I snip with some very sharp pointed pruners. Can get into any crevice with them.
 
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