plant-care Rootbound plant Recovery

[91300zx]

I am wondering if I ruined my plants or if they will recover. It appears I may have waited to long to up pot and some of my plants are trying to produce buds. They are now in 5 or 7 gallon containers and I teased the roots a bit before transplanting. I have no idea what size my plants should be at this point. This particular plant was planted maybe mid march. That is around a 9" skewer for reference. The smaller one to the right in the photo has some small buds starting as well.

 

[growyourown]

(i always start by saying i'm no expert and far from being one. but i like attempting to answer these questions and then hoping others chime in with similar and more informative answers...)

peppers are very resilient, and they should be able to bounce back if your season will be long enough to overcome the delay and still get later ripe fruit.

i think some/many might recommend to remove the buds/flowers now that they are in larger pots, to discourage the flowering/fruiting process and hopefully the plant will then decide to focus on its roots (and then branches/leaves) again.

but it also takes some time for the plant recover from the transplant shock and to "learn" that it now has more room to grow roots, which could mean it will be 1-3 weeks before you see growth start to resume at more than a crawling pace.

 

[91300zx]

(i always start by saying i'm no expert and far from being one. but i like attempting to answer these questions and then hoping others chime in with similar and more informative answers...)

peppers are very resilient, and they should be able to bounce back if your season will be long enough to overcome the delay and still get later ripe fruit.

i think some/many might recommend to remove the buds/flowers now that they are in larger pots, to discourage the flowering/fruiting process and hopefully the plant will then decide to focus on its roots (and then branches/leaves) again.

but it also takes some time for the plant recover from the transplant shock and to "learn" that it now has more room to grow roots, which could mean it will be 1-3 weeks before you see growth start to resume at more than a crawling pace.

appreciate your input. I have been picking them off in hopes that will help. Are these at the size, that I want them to start budding? Thanks

 

[growyourown]

well i'll try again to answer. i think ideally you want them to keep growing as long as possible but still have enough time for all your eventual fruits to ripen.

the bigger the plant gets, the more fruits it can support, but if you deny it fruiting too long that your season ends before any ripen, you will be sad.

so if a type of pepper takes approx 80 days from flower to ripe fruit, best case scenario is to start fruiting maybe 100 days from the projected frost date (because all flowers/fruits don't appear all at once of course).

pinching off buds and feeding nitrogen-dominant ferts are good ways to try and delay fruiting, and then changing to more p-k-focused nutes to bring about fruiting are popular ways to encourage the plant to do what you want.

BUT- i am personally very much of the camp of laissez-faire/hands-off/letting nature take its course. i may pinch off buds sometimes before final transplant, but once they are outside in the beds i let them just do their thing. and of course, the plant can and will continue to grow stems and leaves along with fruiting, so it's not as big a deal to try to "control things" in my opinion. if you are adamant on "maximizing" by taking every effort, by all means do so, but it also works fine if you just leave it be.

(and i could be totally wrong in my thinking, or have bad facts, just giving my opinion here)

 

[91300zx]

well i'll try again to answer. i think ideally you want them to keep growing as long as possible but still have enough time for all your eventual fruits to ripen.

the bigger the plant gets, the more fruits it can support, but if you deny it fruiting too long that your season ends before any ripen, you will be sad.

so if a type of pepper takes approx 80 days from flower to ripe fruit, best case scenario is to start fruiting maybe 100 days from the projected frost date (because all flowers/fruits don't appear all at once of course).

pinching off buds and feeding nitrogen-dominant ferts are good ways to try and delay fruiting, and then changing to more p-k-focused nutes to bring about fruiting are popular ways to encourage the plant to do what you want.

BUT- i am personally very much of the camp of laissez-faire/hands-off/letting nature take its course. i may pinch off buds sometimes before final transplant, but once they are outside in the beds i let them just do their thing. and of course, the plant can and will continue to grow stems and leaves along with fruiting, so it's not as big a deal to try to "control things" in my opinion. if you are adamant on "maximizing" by taking every effort, by all means do so, but it also works fine if you just leave it be.

(and i could be totally wrong in my thinking, or have bad facts, just giving my opinion here)

I appreciate you sharing your experiences either way. I have been pulling off buds and once a week with a more nitrogen rich fert, fertilizing. I am probably over thinking and just paranoid because it is my first time growing anything. Thanks again.