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To pinch or not to pinch?

S

Swisschili

Hi. I'm a new member, and also new to the world of chili growing. I recently picked up about a dozen various chili plants and have been hardening them off for the past week, hoping to plant them out tomorrow. The plants are approx 1 foot tall and many are loaded with blooms. Should I pinch these blooms and buds off when I transplant, to encourage a larger plant? Or if I pinch, will the plans take too long to bloom again and I risk not getting ripe fruit by first frost( mid October) ?

What do you think?

The varieties are bhut jolokia, brown bhutla, fatalii, aji charapita, black pepperoncini, Fuego, cayenne, jalapeno, and 3 different habs..

Thanks in advance for your help.. these pepper plants have made me perplexed!
 
I vote no pinch.  My experience (with red bhuts, jalepenos), is that the plant will drop flowers on its own for a while, then start producing pods.  You may not have enough time to recover this season if you pinch arbitrarily right now.  See what you get this season, then pinch back or overwinter, depending on your growing season.  This site has some WONDERFUL guidance and tutorials, which I found immensely helpful and also very humbling.  Still do.  Good Luck!
 
I don't pinch.  And if I were in your spot, with a shorter growing season, I'd at least let that first one grow, to ensure that I had seed stock.
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Plants will grow vegetatively just fine, even during the course of fruit production.  Just make sure that it has nutrients, good growing conditions, and keep a vigilant eye out for pests, and it will be fine.
 
I wouldn’t pinch the flowers off. However, they may drop by themselves from transplant shock.


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Thanks for the tips. Last week I've already removed all the blooms from the jalapeño and one of the habs. The jalapeño has kept growing and has 3 thumb sized green fruits that ill harvest at transplant.  The hab is starting to branch out more and is developing loads of new buds. 
 
The fatalli got topped by accident.. i must of knocked it somehow and broke off the top 6 inches :tear: . But it looks ok and is sending out new growth from the nodes.  It was also the only plant that hadn't been topped yet so maybe it was meant to be..
 
The rest of the plants i'll leave to do their own thing for now.
 
The jolokia has a 3 inch long fruit, nearly bone white. Fingers crossed that i can get it to ripen..
 
 
I can't wait to get these buggers in their final pots - some dolo lime is coming in the mail and they'll be transplanted on Tues.  On a sidetone, the selection of organic amendments and ferts available to the home gardener is dismal here in Europe compared to the US. Only one retailer of dolomitic lime in the country, unless you want to buy a truckload...
 
Anyway, i'll be growing these out in diy sub-irrigated planters.  Substrate is similar to the 3-2-1 mix (from Raybo, a guy on tomato forums who shared his design for the 'earthtainer' SIP) with 3 parts BioBizz light mix (peat-based mix), 2 parts pine bark fines, and one part perlite. I'll add a bit of dolo lime, kelp meal, maybe some earthworm poo, some bonemeal, some other various stuff, and for an organic granular fertilizer (recommended to use with this style planter), I've got some hollytone 4-3-4.  It's not quite the desired ratio for peppers, so I've read, but ill add more bonemeal and kelp to help bump up the P and K levels. Ive also got some organic liquid chili fertilizer (3-1-5) from a german company, just in case or to really get the plants cranking since i'm off to a late start with them this summer.
 
Here's the link for that product if anyone else in Europe is interested. (I can't vouch for it, haven't used it yet myself, fyi):
 
https://www.chili-shop24.de/chili-zucht/zuchtzubehoer/250/bio-chili-duenger
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Swisschili said:
I've got some hollytone 4-3-4.  It's not quite the desired ratio for peppers, so I've read, but ill add more bonemeal and kelp to help bump up the P and K levels. Ive also got some organic liquid chili fertilizer (3-1-5) from a german company, just in case or to really get the plants cranking since i'm off to a late start with them this summer.
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You don't need to do all of that stuff.  There is no magic in manipulating NPK.  A 4-3-4 is more than sufficient for chili growing, and even more so, if it's organic.  Stick with ONE fertilizer. (or two, if you want to alternate a good inorganic, calcium-based fert in the mix)  Good growing conditions do more than nutrient cycling ever could.
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If anything, you'll do way more good for your plants with the addition of that kelp.  but bonemeal is largely a humongous waste of money - especially in containers.  You don't need more K, and you certainly don't need more P.   I'd recommend adding 5% compost to the mix, do your fert, add the kelp, call it good. 
 
solid7 said:
 
You don't need to do all of that stuff.  There is no magic in manipulating NPK.  A 4-3-4 is more than sufficient for chili growing, and even more so, if it's organic.  Stick with ONE fertilizer. (or two, if you want to alternate a good inorganic, calcium-based fert in the mix)  Good growing conditions do more than nutrient cycling ever could.
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If anything, you'll do way more good for your plants with the addition of that kelp.  but bonemeal is largely a humongous waste of money - especially in containers.  You don't need more K, and you certainly don't need more P.   I'd recommend adding 5% compost to the mix, do your fert, add the kelp, call it good. 
Click to expand...
 
 
Thank you, this is great to hear and will save me some hassle and $. Im new to both chilis and container gardening, so just trying to make sure i don't screw up these pepper plants, lol.  I'll follow your recommendations.
 
I've always left them but does pinching off the flower buds actually promote growth? I'm curious if this is fact or a myth.

I understand that plants produce more growth hormones (auxins,gibberellins,cytokins,etc.), when they're being attacked by insects or when topped. But does the same thing apply when the buds are pinched? does pinching just stress the plant by making it produce more flowers? It seems plausible that the plant would grow taller without the extra need to support pods... but I'm more inclined to believe that the plant would do both simultaneously.
 
Chili said:
I've always left them but does pinching off the flower buds actually promote growth? I'm curious if this is fact or a myth.

I understand that plants produce more growth hormones (auxins,gibberellins,cytokins,etc.), when they're being attacked by insects or when topped. But does the same thing apply when the buds are pinched? does pinching just stress the plant by making it produce more flowers? It seems plausible that the plant would grow taller without the extra need to support pods... but I'm more inclined to believe that the plant would do both simultaneously.
Click to expand...
From my experience, chilli plants will get a new wave of foliage growth if you pinch buds. Problem is it will set you back several weeks for the plant to produce another bud(s) somewhere else on the plant. So, deciding to pinch or not to pinch depends on how much time you have left in your season, just like topping. Sometimes I pinch the inital bud(s) in the center of the first fork, but this year I didn't pinch anything and just let the plants drop buds as they wanted.
 
I dont worry about harvest deadlines, having a year-round growing season.
So, this year i removed early blossoms, and i noted continued vegetative growth and buds replaced 10-14 days later. I wasnt impressed with the results, and i probably wont do it again.
On one habanero i left a lone fruit and it produced a very large early pepper, also setting 12 new pods while ripening and continuing foliar growth.
 
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