Should I top of prune my pepper plants?

H

hmasters34

Hello all,
 
I germinated my current crop of peppers in February, so now my plants range in size from 3" tall to 9".
 
I know it's controversial, but would people advise topping or pruning plants at all? Keep in mind, my grow season here in Bermuda is quite long. And I plan on keeping my plants for a number of seasons.
 
What are your thoughts? I will probably run an experiment to compare, but all any comments are helpful!
 
 
 
     I wouldn't. People usually top their plants to hasten branching which will result in more peppers, sooner. Since you have a nice, long Bermuda growing season, you have time on your side - they're gonna produce a ton of peppers anyway. Also, since you plan on keeping your plants for more than one season, if you leave them intact your plants will grow up into a nice, strong tree-like shape. 
     Having said that, definitely do an experiment. I did comparisons the last two years and I'm totally sold on leaving plants intact, especially my future OWs. IMO, topping ruins a plant's structure. Good luck!
 
Here is where I topped mine. You can see a bunch of new growth coming in.
 
topped1_zps88687309.jpg

 
After you top the plants, should you remove some of the leaves? My instincts tell me I should to promote further growth of new branches...
 
Cayennemist said:
Do some and don't do others. Then form your own hypothesis on topping and pruning.
Click to expand...
 

Definitely top and strip leaves from some, and leave some. My first season doing it and  the new growth is phenomenal.
 
From what I gather, topping pushes energy into branching and stripping some leaves off (keep lower ones for photosynthesis ) opens up the lower nodes to light.
 
It really depends on your grow size and preference.  Topping isn't really right or wrong so long as you do it in a way that doesn't seriously set the plant back.
 
This year I'm topping about 70% of my grow, but there are some plants I'm letting grow without intervention so I can have some early pods from some of the new (to me) plants that I haven't had production on before.
 
I would say that if your location is subject to a lot of wind, topping plants will encourage more of a "low and wide" profile which can benefit the plant.
 
I would suggest to top the plants, but I agree with Cayennemist that you should play around and test on a few. See what ends up working best for you. If you do top, I would suggest topping just the top most leaves. That way you get as many branches as you can.
 
Here are a few pics of topped plants:
 
This one is the DWC Carolina Reaper that is now outdoors and my largest plant.
IMG_7317_zps8d422094.jpg

 
 
Here is a soil Carolina Reaper topped around the same time.
IMG_7321_zps869b1c89.jpg

 
 
The one in the blue 5 gallon is the same plant as the above picture (soil Carolina Reaper)
IMG_8430_zpsdc7e81cd.jpg

 
And the DWC Carolina Reaper a few months later:
IMG_8480_zps6d2e3af8.jpg
 
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