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pics Selective pruning to increase crop experiment w/pics
- Thread starter LGHT
- Start date
I am sorry if you took my post as a personal attack (which it wasn't) , I wasn't trying to undermine your ideas or experiment, so there is no need to get so defensive.
I obviously never realised you were above advice or others ideas or opinions.
OK you guys let's step back and take a breath.....we're all here to learn, live, and love peppers.
I was just out in garden and took about 15 minutes to go through my Naga Jolokia's, which don't have many pods on the 19 plants, and randomly thinned the big leaves out. I got about a third of the way through. All are 3 foot high and make a great canopy, but not many peppers. As I look at it now there is a less overcrowded look in that third. As pruning I did discover more pods that were under big leaves.
Leaves bigger then my hand are what they call sucker leaves, right?? I removed A LOT of them.
I was just out in garden and took about 15 minutes to go through my Naga Jolokia's, which don't have many pods on the 19 plants, and randomly thinned the big leaves out. I got about a third of the way through. All are 3 foot high and make a great canopy, but not many peppers. As I look at it now there is a less overcrowded look in that third. As pruning I did discover more pods that were under big leaves.
Leaves bigger then my hand are what they call sucker leaves, right?? I removed A LOT of them.
Trippa, I didn't take it as a personal attack I just wanted to clarify that it wasn't a controlled experiment in any way nor was it intended to be. I'm a solely patio Gardner with very few plants all in pots so by no means am I above advice or opinions. As I mentioned the whole experiment was based on a tomato growing article I read online some where so it's based on someone elses experiment.
Well this year I never allowed the plants to grow leaves that big. I actually have a lot more leaves on my pruned plants now that the weather is better, but I still don't allow any leafs to get over say 2" in size. If it does it gets pruned. I think I may be over pruning at times as the plant looks sickly, but it's loaded with pods so I just get pulling.
All good I am a long way from an expert as well and am in the same boat as you in terms of being (at the moment) a balcony/patio gardener. Like I said I think its an interesting idea and I know that it is actually used as a technique to enhance flowering/fruiting on other plants (including Grapevines and other less legal plants)
I'm really new to growing peppers but when you say you are pruning leaves, are you plucking them or cutting them off? If you are cutting them off, are you doing it right against the stalk or a bit down the leaf? Hope this makes sense. 
It's not the size that matters it's how well you work with what you got …or something like that. A great deal of my early success as a chili grower is credited from members like you, AJ, SS, Burning Colon and so many others. I just wanted to say thanks big guy for sharing your chili knowledge.
My GF borrowed my camera so I couldn't take pics of the recent harvest, but I weighed almost a lb of ripe fruit picked in a little over a week. The pods are getting HUGE after a good amount of sun the last month. I noticed a few pods that are almost ripe about 2" long and 2" in diameter. I haven't picked one of the monsters yet, but i'll be sure to get a pic of it on the scale once they ripen.
It seems like my hunch of getting small pods being the result of cold weather was right on. Ever since the rains stopped (almost) the size and weight of the fruit has increased quit a bit. The amount of pods has decreased from around 100 to 75 between the 2 plants, but the overall size per pod has almost doubled and I no longer have grunts. I still have some flower drop, but not as much as before.
FYI as a result of this experiment I now have more peppers than I can use and after making a big jar of concentrate i'm open to trading peppers if anyone wants some TS for other fresh superhot peppers.
It seems like my hunch of getting small pods being the result of cold weather was right on. Ever since the rains stopped (almost) the size and weight of the fruit has increased quit a bit. The amount of pods has decreased from around 100 to 75 between the 2 plants, but the overall size per pod has almost doubled and I no longer have grunts. I still have some flower drop, but not as much as before.
FYI as a result of this experiment I now have more peppers than I can use and after making a big jar of concentrate i'm open to trading peppers if anyone wants some TS for other fresh superhot peppers.
Are you looking for anything in particular other than just superhots?
I'm picking stuff every day, but only small amounts. The crashing down of the flood gates are just around the corner. I have some large yellow 7 pods the size of tennis balls. Take a look at my grow list to see what might interest you.
Hey sounds good wow about some of the large yellow 7 pods?
would be most interesting (given that this is a 2011 thread) what is the OPs take on this exercise with some time having passed ...
- does he still prune that aggressively (80%)?
- does he prune to a lesser extent?
- etc...
thx for any "updates" there might be ....
cheers
Al "inquiring mind needs to know" B.
- does he still prune that aggressively (80%)?
- does he prune to a lesser extent?
- etc...
thx for any "updates" there might be ....
cheers
Al "inquiring mind needs to know" B.
I interested.
Unfortunetly I no longer grow peppers after renting out my old place and purchasing a new place that gets zero sun during the day and has a strict policy against plants on the patio.
Prior to the move I did setup a much larger 30 gallon SIP container and tested out 2 chocolate Habs and had even better success. Keep in mind that the above test was done on a small earthbox. I believe the entire container is only 12 gallons if that. I could feel roots about 2" below the surface so clearly they needed more room which is why I went with the larger 30 gallon container. Sadly my sister who adopted the plants didn't care for them and they eventually over heated and died. I also tried the technique on an over wintered Ahi-Chombo and didn't get as good results. It was had trying to figure out what leaves were the sucker leaves since most if not all of the leaves are pretty big in size.
I wouldn't hesitate to aggressively prune my super hots again if I still had some growing, but keep in mind I also foilar feed, amend with earth worm castings, and had a balanced and planned fertilzing schedule so it wasn't simply pruning alone.
Hi folks, till this year i never prune ot top myplants. But this year i deacided,for greater yields to top or prune my peppers.
Few questions :
1. i have fatalii pepper, moruga, bell pepper, habanero . IS THE method of pruning or toping the same for ll plants?
2. When is time to prune or top?
3.I it better t prune or top/combination?
Ok,, you are the masters ,,enlight me
Few questions :
1. i have fatalii pepper, moruga, bell pepper, habanero . IS THE method of pruning or toping the same for ll plants?
2. When is time to prune or top?
3.I it better t prune or top/combination?
Ok,, you are the masters ,,enlight me
Most trim the top only because they want to allow the sun to reach the lower part of the plant. Another option is to tie down the larger stalks in the middle of the plant so they are pulled outward and as a result get more sun if your plant is only growing upward instead of trimming.
Although I no longer grow peppers due to a relocation a few years back I never trimmed the top of my plants. Instead I learned to take a proactive approach by tying down my stalks at a young age so they are trained to grow outward instead of upward. So instead of a tall skinny plant my plants adults would look more like a wide short bush. I found this to be the best setup for growth because 1. the plant doesn't have to move nutrients from the roots as far to reach the top of the plant and plants gets twice as much sun exposure because it's wider than taller. I noticed this only after a few years of growing when my short wide plants simply produced a lot more peppers than my tall skinny ones.
However this post wasn't and isn't about trimming at all. It's about removing what's called "sucker leaves" or "water leaves" from the entire plant. Leaves that are larger than say 2-3" in overall size. Since plants can use fruit for photosynthesis wouldn’t you rather have more fruit on your plant than more leaves? Since my goal is to grow more fruit not leaves I found removing the sucker leaves really helped as they would be replaced by fruit under the right conditions. I've re posted pics of the plant in the experiment so you can see what I’m talking about. The reason why the pics are orangish is because I had them growing under a HPS light to really stimulate it's flowering.
I think I recall some nodes having as much as 16 individual flowers and most did turn into pods over the life of the plant. The end result was 2 plants in 1 earthbox container that produced roughly a pound of fruit each week for months. To this day I still have jars of powder from those plants.
Most trim the top only because they want to allow the sun to reach the lower part of the plant. Another option is to tie down the larger stalks in the middle of the plant so they are pulled outward and as a result get more sun if your plant is only growing upward instead of trimming.
Although I no longer grow peppers due to a relocation a few years back I never trimmed the top of my plants. Instead I learned to take a proactive approach by tying down my stalks at a young age so they are trained to grow outward instead of upward. So instead of a tall skinny plant my plants adults would look more like a wide short bush. I found this to be the best setup for growth because 1. the plant doesn't have to move nutrients from the roots as far to reach the top of the plant and plants gets twice as much sun exposure because it's wider than taller. I noticed this only after a few years of growing when my short wide plants simply produced a lot more peppers than my tall skinny ones.
However this post wasn't and isn't about trimming at all. It's about removing what's called "sucker leaves" or "water leaves" from the entire plant. Leaves that are larger than say 2-3" in overall size. Since plants can use fruit for photosynthesis wouldn’t you rather have more fruit on your plant than more leaves? Since my goal is to grow more fruit not leaves I found removing the sucker leaves really helped as they would be replaced by fruit under the right conditions. I've re posted pics of the plant in the experiment so you can see what I’m talking about. The reason why the pics are orangish is because I had them growing under a HPS light to really stimulate it's flowering.
I think I recall some nodes having as much as 16 individual flowers and most did turn into pods over the life of the plant. The end result was 2 plants in 1 earthbox container that produced roughly a pound of fruit each week for months. To this day I still have jars of powder from those plants.
Although I no longer grow peppers due to a relocation a few years back I never trimmed the top of my plants. Instead I learned to take a proactive approach by tying down my stalks at a young age so they are trained to grow outward instead of upward. So instead of a tall skinny plant my plants adults would look more like a wide short bush. I found this to be the best setup for growth because 1. the plant doesn't have to move nutrients from the roots as far to reach the top of the plant and plants gets twice as much sun exposure because it's wider than taller. I noticed this only after a few years of growing when my short wide plants simply produced a lot more peppers than my tall skinny ones.
However this post wasn't and isn't about trimming at all. It's about removing what's called "sucker leaves" or "water leaves" from the entire plant. Leaves that are larger than say 2-3" in overall size. Since plants can use fruit for photosynthesis wouldn’t you rather have more fruit on your plant than more leaves? Since my goal is to grow more fruit not leaves I found removing the sucker leaves really helped as they would be replaced by fruit under the right conditions. I've re posted pics of the plant in the experiment so you can see what I’m talking about. The reason why the pics are orangish is because I had them growing under a HPS light to really stimulate it's flowering.
I think I recall some nodes having as much as 16 individual flowers and most did turn into pods over the life of the plant. The end result was 2 plants in 1 earthbox container that produced roughly a pound of fruit each week for months. To this day I still have jars of powder from those plants.
matew90 said:
Most trim the top only because they want to allow the sun to reach the lower part of the plant. Another option is to tie down the larger stalks in the middle of the plant so they are pulled outward and as a result get more sun if your plant is only growing upward instead of trimming.
Although I no longer grow peppers due to a relocation a few years back I never trimmed the top of my plants. Instead I learned to take a proactive approach by tying down my stalks at a young age so they are trained to grow outward instead of upward. So instead of a tall skinny plant my plants adults would look more like a wide short bush. I found this to be the best setup for growth because 1. the plant doesn't have to move nutrients from the roots as far to reach the top of the plant and plants gets twice as much sun exposure because it's wider than taller. I noticed this only after a few years of growing when my short wide plants simply produced a lot more peppers than my tall skinny ones.
However this post wasn't and isn't about trimming at all. It's about removing what's called "sucker leaves" or "water leaves" from the entire plant. Leaves that are larger than say 2-3" in overall size. Since plants can use fruit for photosynthesis wouldn’t you rather have more fruit on your plant than more leaves? Since my goal is to grow more fruit not leaves I found removing the sucker leaves really helped as they would be replaced by fruit under the right conditions. I've re posted pics of the plant in the experiment so you can see what I’m talking about. The reason why the pics are orangish is because I had them growing under a HPS light to really stimulate it's flowering.
I think I recall some nodes having as much as 16 individual flowers and most did turn into pods over the life of the plant. The end result was 2 plants in 1 earthbox container that produced roughly a pound of fruit each week for months. To this day I still have jars of powder from those plants.