Tiny plant pushing flowers

[Bou]

Hi fellow chili heads!
Just noticed that my SRP is flowering. No big deal here except that this plant is only about 3 inch tall, despite being very bushy!! I've repot all my seedlings last week (from Jiffy pellet to potting soil) and I know that stress may sometimes induce flowering. My plan was to pinch all the flowers but I was wondering if it sould fully recover any time soon or just keep on pushing flowers and stop growing normally. If it might help, my plants are under a 18-6 light regimen (Sunblaster LEDs in grow tent) and I'm watering them every 4 days or so (when the soil is quite dry), no nutrients added yet. Thanks in advance for your input!

 

[PaulG]

Try pinching the flowers at every other node starting
with the first node after the main fork, which you also
pinch. That is if you can get to them in its current
bushy state!
 
I have gone both ways, pinching all and not pinching
at all. I tried the alternate node method last season
on some indoor plants, and it worked pretty well, had
great pod set on the remaining flowers.

 

[Bou]

Yeah, that's what I'll do; thanks for the advice PaulG!
 
According to your experience, should I expect the plant to stop flowering at some point and just go back on "grow mode" or it will keep pushing flowers forever and have a stunt growth?

 

[solid7]

Pepper plants will flower indefinitely, so long as their basic needs are met, and they have a favorable growing environment.  That's not to say that they won't "take a break" occasionally, but in general, once they start, it's happening.  Try to maintain consistent conditions in your growing area, and you can keep them producing perpetually.
.
This will especially be true if you resist the urge to follow "veg" and "bloom" advice.  Keep the plant's growing environment - food, water, light, temp, etc - consistent, and the plant will continue growing optimally, and it will do the rest on autopilot.

 

[willard3]

Leave the plant alone, it knows what it is doing.

 

[The_NorthEast_ChileMan]

IMO, at 3", the plant too small to mature enough to support the weight of the fruit depending on main stem development over the next few months.
 
As always, YMMV.

 

[Bou]

Pepper plants will flower indefinitely, so long as their basic needs are met, and they have a favorable growing environment.  That's not to say that they won't "take a break" occasionally, but in general, once they start, it's happening.  Try to maintain consistent conditions in your growing area, and you can keep them producing perpetually.
.
This will especially be true if you resist the urge to follow "veg" and "bloom" advice.  Keep the plant's growing environment - food, water, light, temp, etc - consistent, and the plant will continue growing optimally, and it will do the rest on autopilot.

 
I've grown other stuff that were requiring veg and bloom "adaptation" but that's not what I had in mind for my peppers (planning for steady conditions). I've started early because I have plenty of time in the winter and I want to experiment a bit (topping, etc.) to get the more bushy-branchy plants with sturdy stems and healthy root balls as possible for the upcoming spring (raised beds). Thanks for the advice!

 

[Bou]

IMO, at 3", the plant too small to mature enough to support the weight of the fruit depending on main stem development over the next few months.
 
As always, YMMV.

 
Well that's exactly what I was affraid of... so I'll keep on pinching the flowers untill it gets to a certain height. First time growing SRP but I've read that they can get quite tall and produce more than decent yields in good conditions. I would be disappointed to end up with a broken plant or a dwarf version of it with only a handfull of pods!! I'll give him a chance but if he's not recovering/growing to my expectation I'll start another one as I still have plenty of time ahead! Thanks!

 

[solid7]

I've grown other stuff that were requiring veg and bloom "adaptation"

That's because "other" plants have a limited life span, and are intended for wholesale consumption.  The same might also apply if you were growing a one-time crop, either in soil, or not, and were hyper focused on vegetative quality, or the quality of a single end product.  Also, we don't really need our pepper plants to die.  We aren't drying them out, so there is no need to taper back on things like Nitrogen, to induce an "end of life" response.