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Removing Leaves?

Josh

Josh

I had a question based on photos I have seen of healthy, pod loaded plants. It appears on several of these plants as if they have removed the leaves at the base. Is this what is happening and is this common practice? I guess it makes sense that if the leaves are not shading the fruit then they are only taking energy away from the production of fruit. Still knew to this so let me know. Thanks...
 
Josh said:
I had a question based on photos I have seen of healthy, pod loaded plants. It appears on several of these plants as if they have removed the leaves at the base. Is this what is happening and is this common practice? I guess it makes sense that if the leaves are not shading the fruit then they are only taking energy away from the production of fruit. Still knew to this so let me know. Thanks...
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Most of the stem leaves probably fell off by themselfs. They tend to do that after a while, more so if they are shaded.

Mine would get a little yellowish around the veins first then all you had to do was look at it funny and it would fall right off.
 
Hiya Josh yes removing a few leaves will put more energy into the sections that produce flowers and pods..but i would not say its something in stone,tried it on a number of my own and compared side by side and to be honest..the ones where i didn't remove the leaves are as productive as the one where i did :)
 
Thanks for all the replies I guess I will leave mine alone. I do have leaves yellowing and falling off the bottom from time to time but figured I would ask.
 
Sometimes they fall off, especially after planting out. As long as they don't do that, I leave them alone. You can remove dying yellowing leaves that'll enable the plant to put all energy into the healthy parts.
 
I'm with chiliac...if a leaf on my plants starts to yellow, I pluck it off...
 
Thanks Chiliac and AJ you guys are being really helpful with all my annoying questions. Thanks for taking the time. Hopefully in a couple of years once I am seasoned I will be able to pay it forward.
 
That was an interesting question you asked Josh.

My plants (what I have left of them anyway!) have lots of missing leaves at the bottom, is it worth repotting them so the stem is lower into the ground or does this suffocate the plant if you plant it lower than where the leaves fell off
Thanks
 
Nah, don't do that. You won't benefit from it and a lot of plants grow new leaves right above where the others fell off from. I'll take a pic of one of mine doing just that tomorrow and post it then.
 
POTAWIE said:
The bottom leaves are usually the first to fall off and this is normal
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i would always prune my leaves so the energy/nutrients go to where it counts... should i even bother with that and just let it happen naturally ?
 
It'll also take some effort from the plant to recover from that. I am only plucking leaves that don't need to be cut off, you know, the ones that just come off when you slightly pull or just touch them.
 
i think pruning the leaves is probably a bigger deal for tomatoes, after the fruit's set i'll take off pretty much every leaf on the plant (poor things look naked...) but i never tried this with peppers
 
shit... i just finished pruning some lastnight... they now look like pepper bonzai plants... not sure if this was a good move on my part ?... i may have stressed them out too much...
 
Im sure you'll be fine..you ought to see my naked san marzano tomato plant funny as hell and the toms taste great :lol:
 
Hotpeppa said:
shit... i just finished pruning some lastnight... they now look like pepper bonzai plants... not sure if this was a good move on my part ?... i may have stressed them out too much...
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they'll be fine, and if they are stressed that just means hotter peppers ;)

seriously tho, peppers are tough. people bonsai them on purpose (one of my projects for the fall...) i had one plant that was a partially brown stick after an aphid attack earlier this season, now it's nice and bushy.
plus if it works for tomatoes i'm sure some of the logic still applies to peppers
 
talas said:
Im sure you'll be fine..you ought to see my naked san marzano tomato plant funny as hell and the toms taste great :lol:
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nothing like garden tomatoes.... if its not chili its got to be fresh sweet juicy garden tomatoes....:cool:
 
my first degree was in wildlife management, specialty biology BS...I dated a girl that specialized in ornamental horticulture and had a business that put her through college...she supplied plants to numerous establishments from hotel/motels, restaurants, bowling alleys, pool halls...etc...she didn't need a greenhouse 'cause the people where her plants were were providing the life necessities of the plants...light and a controlled environment....she made some pretty good bucks doing this...

sorry to ramble...point is that was all she did in her spare time...go to the places where she had her plants and take care of them...pruned a lot...first thing she taught me was...if a leaf ain't right, it shouldn't see the night....
 
hmmm, that was the thinking behind it... not to prune for looks but to prune for the health...

you're a smart cat AJ...what did you end up doing with the wildlife management degree ? what were your intentions at the time ?
 
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