She is looking good! Nice and bushy. I wouldn't top her either. I gotta get white hab seeds next year. I've had an easy time with grape cuttings. I'll look up cloning. I'm sure that can be handy for a first generation crossbreed.
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Topping a plant?
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She is looking good! Nice and bushy. I wouldn't top her either. I gotta get white hab seeds next year. I've had an easy time with grape cuttings. I'll look up cloning. I'm sure that can be handy for a first generation crossbreed.
Well i have three Bhut Jolokia`s growing magnificant (lots of fruit) and two which my chickens lopped the tops off, there was nothing left of the two smaller ones but i knew they would come back & they did and are growing very well after near chicken death.
So i was wondering the same question myself, when im growing 'other' plants i normally nip the top off them to promote a bushier plant & threfore more fruit, so ill be posting some pics in a few months time to see if nipping the tops does in fact promote a bushier plant with more fruit, or whether my dam chicken just had a good Bhut feed at my expenses.
I am also growing avacado`s (guacamole to you north American folk) and they say to pinch the top of the plant off at about 8" to pomote at much bushier tree that will eventually produce more fruit.
Mezo.
So i was wondering the same question myself, when im growing 'other' plants i normally nip the top off them to promote a bushier plant & threfore more fruit, so ill be posting some pics in a few months time to see if nipping the tops does in fact promote a bushier plant with more fruit, or whether my dam chicken just had a good Bhut feed at my expenses.
I am also growing avacado`s (guacamole to you north American folk) and they say to pinch the top of the plant off at about 8" to pomote at much bushier tree that will eventually produce more fruit.
Mezo.
I prune all my plants a LOT. I've always done a bit of pruning, but last year I did an experiment on a plant based on a research study and pruned around 80% of ALL my plant started to flower. The study indicated that you want to get rid of all leaves and allow the plant to focus all it's energy on fruit and not growth. Since a plant can use fruit, stems, for photosynthesis your essentially growing more fruit instead of more leaves. You also don't want to allow a plant to grow leaves over 2-3" as they become "sucker" leaves and rob energy from your plant that could be used for fruiting.
The experiment was a huge success and I noticed a big increase in production from the same plant the previous year.
Pic of multiple nodes on plant
The experiment was a huge success and I noticed a big increase in production from the same plant the previous year.
Pic of multiple nodes on plant
Those peppers look good. Are they Red Caribeans? That is an interesting experiment. I've had plants ditch their leaves while I brougth them in the house and keep their fruits. One of my habaneros was very late and had tons of pods with no leaves, lol. It stayed that way until I harvested them. I ended up ditching that plant because I didn't understand overwintering last season.
Did you notice an increase in size of the pods as well? Or just #'s?
Ive just & checked my Bhut Jolokia`s for leaves that size, and yep 20 or so big ones ive just removed more than 5" in size.
Thanks for the advice, the chicken death ones are just flowering as i looked close up, be interesting to see if hacked to the stump produces more fruit or a bushier plant, they dont look much different right now.
Mezo.
AlabamaJack
eXtreme
as compared to other plants of the variety, how does the distance between nodes compare...ideally you would like to have a relatively small internodular distance...the distance between nodes is controlled by auxins or something like that...lots of research available on the subject of Auxins....
the advantage of topping or pruning is that it produces more nodes...and that is where your fruit production is...
you can top, prune, cut back, etc. nearly anytime you want...for overwintered plants, I cut completely back to bare stems about 40-50 cm and strip all the sprouts and everything off he limbs...for plants that go outside when plantout comes, I usually get one slight frost after I put them out for good and that kills the tender new growth at the tips of the branches...this essentially makes them grow in a different direction...usually at least 2 different brandes emerge...
when you do severely prune or cutback a plant, make the cut about 1/2" above a "Y" or fork in the plant...new growth will emerge around the split somewhere...
here is a wild tepin plant that was severely pruned back to small sticks the first of December...
sorry to ramble, I forgot what the question was...
the advantage of topping or pruning is that it produces more nodes...and that is where your fruit production is...
you can top, prune, cut back, etc. nearly anytime you want...for overwintered plants, I cut completely back to bare stems about 40-50 cm and strip all the sprouts and everything off he limbs...for plants that go outside when plantout comes, I usually get one slight frost after I put them out for good and that kills the tender new growth at the tips of the branches...this essentially makes them grow in a different direction...usually at least 2 different brandes emerge...
when you do severely prune or cutback a plant, make the cut about 1/2" above a "Y" or fork in the plant...new growth will emerge around the split somewhere...
here is a wild tepin plant that was severely pruned back to small sticks the first of December...
sorry to ramble, I forgot what the question was...
It's a TS plant. The expierment was initially done on tomatoes, but since peppers and tomatoes are very similar I figured it would help.
At first I had a huge amount of small pods, but I think that was because the plant was just not getting enough sun. As it got hotter the pods grew to about the same size as the previous year. I didn't have any huge pods like a few did the previous year, but the amount of pods more than doubled and I would often get a lb a week most weeks during the grow season while only giving them 8 hours of sun a day.
ok so after reading this thread, and taking a look at my larger plants in the grow tent that I started early and are kind of my group where I test my strategy out before my 60-80 other pepper plants get bigger, so I am trying to help them to be as healthy as possible, but at the same time, they are big enough in the grow room where I could use a good pruning that would allow more light to penetrate their canopy and keep them from blocking light going to other smaller plants, but mainly I was just curious.
So, I realized that I would give pruning a shot, there were a lot of larger leaves with long petiole (stem part on the leaf) so I took most of them off of the plants, mainly the ones that blocked light from getting to any lower or possible lower growth.. on a few of them I took a few of the larger leaves off the top parts that blocked light, but I started these plants in january and they all have a bunch of flowers/buds on them, and the leaves on top are pretty small still and bunched up. .. so in the end they looked, for the most part, semi bare on the bottom parts of the stem, a handful of them already had a good amount of lower growth so it is great now because the lower/new leaves get some more light..
but my question is.. did I do it correctly.. I figure if anything.. they will all fill up in a month or so.. and the ones that didn't already have new leaves coming from just above the old larger leaf, had small nodes where they were just starting to form.. I cut them with those sharp cuticle scissors about 1/2-1" past the axis point where the petiole connects to the main stem... should be good right??
So, I realized that I would give pruning a shot, there were a lot of larger leaves with long petiole (stem part on the leaf) so I took most of them off of the plants, mainly the ones that blocked light from getting to any lower or possible lower growth.. on a few of them I took a few of the larger leaves off the top parts that blocked light, but I started these plants in january and they all have a bunch of flowers/buds on them, and the leaves on top are pretty small still and bunched up. .. so in the end they looked, for the most part, semi bare on the bottom parts of the stem, a handful of them already had a good amount of lower growth so it is great now because the lower/new leaves get some more light..
but my question is.. did I do it correctly.. I figure if anything.. they will all fill up in a month or so.. and the ones that didn't already have new leaves coming from just above the old larger leaf, had small nodes where they were just starting to form.. I cut them with those sharp cuticle scissors about 1/2-1" past the axis point where the petiole connects to the main stem... should be good right??