seeds Seedling setting flowers too early.

Shorerider

Shorerider

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I've read somewhere that it's advisable to nip off any flowers on seedlings that may sprout to encourage growth.

Is this the case?



Cheers.....
 
That is one school of thought. Others (me included) leave the plant alone as we've seen no significant growth difference in the past. During it's life, a plant will set and drop lots of flowers no matter what you do. One benefit of leaving early flowers is early, little pods - great for snacking.
 
The plants I put into the garden in back are setting flowers now (and I confirmed at least one flower was fertilized), so they'll put out flowers when they feel good & ready to do so, and hottoddy's point is valid, and I've likewise seen no difference in growth regardless of how early they set flowers. Plus, as long as the plants get SOME nitrogen, they'll continue to grow more leaves & stalks (and by extension more flowers), which is why I give them some 9-50-30 ferts :)
 
Agree with hottoddy and SP. I have a szechuan that has had a single pepper on it from when it first started flowering and it's been dropping flowers with no pod setting until the psst week or so. They do what they want ha.
 
Normally I'd launch into a tangent about how I don't agree with forcing a plant to abort its pod because it's too young, but it's too late in the day to do it justice.
 
Instead, here's a picture of a shiny car.
 
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I used to not pluck flowers. Now, however, I pluck them until there are too many for me to mess with - assuming the plant is still small. In general a plant will focus most of its effort on one thing at a time - root growth first, then shoots and leaves, then finally reproduction. When I didn't pluck the flowers, often the plants would drop them anyway - it was like the plants seemed to know they were too small. However, then some started "sticking" and developing into pods. The plants that did this didn't get much bigger through the rest of the season, so production from them was very low. 
 
Pods are only put out at the growth nodes - the joints between branches. Because of this, more growth nodes = more pods. If a plant is focusing on reproduction, that limits the number of nodes. You decide what fits your goal in growing - if you have a lot of plants and little need for a ton of pods, don't pluck the flowers. But if you want better production, pluck at least until you don't want to (or can't) keep up with them. 
 
I seem to get more late season pods from giving the plant a break by picking off "most" of the blooms until it is over 12" tall, freeing up some energy to grow larger, catch more sun to grow even larger faster, etc.  Then again it gets warm here fast after the last frost so the plants seldom lose any blooms from excessively cold night time temperatures.
 
I usually get at least one extra fork from this, which on a large plant can mean a few hundred more peppers... unless we get an early frost then that last fork's pods don't have a chance to ripen so basically I'm sacrificing a small # of early pods on the gamble that I'll have an average or better grow season length.  Sometimes I don't but most of the time I come out ahead on that gamble.
 
Thanks for the great info guys. I think I'll just let the plant do its own thing for now. I have many more so I'm not too pressed for maximum production.



Cheers......
 
So I'll put in my two cents...  I'm rather dubious about this practice.  Unless you have evidence - an experiment where this was done and you can show it improved the yield (or size, heat, plant health, whatever) in comparison to one where this was not done, I don't believe it.  For tomatoes this, and pruning are often recommended (though not like it use to be).  Well, I did conduct an experiment and it showed the opposite.  I only measured productivity though, not size or other characteristics.  I'm no willing to say that some cultivars, or under other environmental or cultural conditions, pruning would not be a good idea, but for me, here, it's a waste of time. I got a lot more tomatoes from unpruned. plants  I think a lot of this comes from other horticultural practices with tree fruits, and flowers, where pruning or remove early blooms is a proven method for plant improvement - though this is ofter for show plants, not for productivity.  It will help certain types of tree fruits.  Apples for instance can be greatly improved by pruning (it all depends on how many fruit set - it's not done at the flower stage, but after).  Too many fruit will result in smaller fruit, break branches, and result in less fruit (inconsistency) the next year.  However, this will depend on the variety, and the year. Some years, there are not too many that set.  With peppers it's not apparent to me that this would matter.  However, I need proof.  Also, each cultivar could be different.
 
So my advice is.  Take half the plants and do this, and half and don't and observe the results.
 
it has been some time since I saw this thread and I note now that plucking annuum blooms may be related more to grow season.  In a long warm grow season like in Virginia it's not a problem to prune more often because the plant has plenty of time to do its thing all season.  Pruning and nipping blooms might not be ideal in other climates where you're pressed for yield time on crops.  I can't imagine pinching buds on a chinense somewhere as cold as where I live now.  It takes a lot to survive out here and they're doing their best to flower.  It's really helpful to clear off leaves often that the plants don't want or are damaged, pruning a few times a week can improve airflow and help strengthen the plant in the process.  Blooms are another story though, that depends on how much time you have to be waiting for your berries.
 
 
Helvete said:
It's really helpful to clear off leaves often that the plants don't want or are damaged, pruning a few times a week can improve airflow and help strengthen the plant in the process.  Blooms are another story though, that depends on how much time you have to be waiting for your berries.
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Pruning a plant a few times a week? Eek! Accomplished growers with large plants would never have the time to do that.
 
true, it can be a lot of work on larger plants...not a lot of people want to take the time to do it especially when you have 450+ plants like I did last year... but on old 2+ year old plants it's necessary.  If you're not clearing off damaged leaves regularly the plant is stalling trying to repair them.
 
 
Helvete said:
true, it can be a lot of work on larger plants...not a lot of people want to take the time to do it especially when you have 450+ plants like I did last year... but on old 2+ year old plants it's necessary.  If you're not clearing off damaged leaves regularly the plant is stalling trying to repair them.
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Peppers (nor most plants in general) don't repair leaf damage. If a leaf gets bad enough that it's serving no benefit to the plant then the plant aborts it... falls off by itself. On the other hand I can appreciate that plants past their 1st season have additional challenges in pruning whether it be for wind resistance or just to not have so much weight at the ends of long limbs that they break off once they're loaded with pods.
 
Dave2000 said:
 Peppers (nor most plants in general) don't repair leaf damage. If a leaf gets bad enough that it's serving no benefit to the plant then the plant aborts it... falls off by itself. On the other hand I can appreciate that plants past their 1st season have additional challenges in pruning whether it be for wind resistance or just to not have so much weight at the ends of long limbs that they break off once they're loaded with pods.
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Plants, most plants even...attempt to repair leaves constantly.  If you clip off a "hat rack" stub on a plant that looks like it's a dead branch it almost always still has green and vital starches in the base of it.  This is the plant still trying to send resources to the dead area, even if it has aborted the area.  Even with no pruning whatsoever, dried and dead leaves can cling on inner branches and still require removal.  If I see browning or yellowing at the tips of any old leaves I remove them as soon as I see them, as a rule.  Pruning old plants twice a week causes an observable and very noticeable increase in new growth.
 
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