Hello everyone I just had two quick questions I was hoping to get answered. The first one is topping a plant, do you only do it once or multiple times and at what stage of growth do you do it? The second one is I have one plant that I am trying to overwinter; it’s about a foot tall now with around 14 leaves. Now I want this plant to grow full size or as big as possible in a flower pot, (it is in a cut off 2 liter bottle at the moment.) and I have 5 flower pots ranging from 15 in x 14 in - 9 in x 6 in, should I go ahead and plant it in the largest pot I have or will a size between them allow enough room for it to grow to maturity? Thanks in advance for any help, hope everyone has a great day!
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Topping and Pot Size Question..
- Thread starter Austin
- Start date
you need ~4 nodes before topping (so branches can grow out of them).
then you cut off the top and it has spots to grow branches, then you can top those branches, etc etc etc, although people might start calling it pruning if you're doing it regularly. So yeah i think some will only consider the 1st original main stem cut the "top".
if you're overwintering just let the plant sit there in the 2litre and replant into the biggest container you have around march / april.
then you cut off the top and it has spots to grow branches, then you can top those branches, etc etc etc, although people might start calling it pruning if you're doing it regularly. So yeah i think some will only consider the 1st original main stem cut the "top".
if you're overwintering just let the plant sit there in the 2litre and replant into the biggest container you have around march / april.
Really depends.
I have 6 1 gallon pots with 3 plants in each (well--in 4 of them, 2 had a failure or 2)
They have been topped early to keep them 12-18 inches and bushy.
They will get rootbound, and need attention to watering, as a couple days missed when droopy will kill them.
Mine were topped 3 times before forking in the small pots.
For supers and other Chinense's, a 5 gallon bucket or similar would be the smallest I would recommend for full size plants, while other types (Bolivian Rainbow, Inca Berry, and the like) will do just fine in a good sized flower pot.
Long branched varieties (Thai's and Aji's like thai dragon and aji pineapple) will need to be pruned much more than 3 times to keep them contained in a small pot.
My peppers in 5 gallon hydro just get 2 toppings before forking.
I usually do little "potting up". They sprout in an aerogarden sponge, go into 3 or 4 inch plastic planters till the roots develope, then directly into their semi-final resting place.
Most go into the ground, some go into semi-bonchi projects in little pots, and the hydro's spend a season in buckets (12-14 months there about) before going outside into dirt for the final summer.
I am positive everyone has their own preferred method.
I have 6 1 gallon pots with 3 plants in each (well--in 4 of them, 2 had a failure or 2)
They have been topped early to keep them 12-18 inches and bushy.
They will get rootbound, and need attention to watering, as a couple days missed when droopy will kill them.
Mine were topped 3 times before forking in the small pots.
For supers and other Chinense's, a 5 gallon bucket or similar would be the smallest I would recommend for full size plants, while other types (Bolivian Rainbow, Inca Berry, and the like) will do just fine in a good sized flower pot.
Long branched varieties (Thai's and Aji's like thai dragon and aji pineapple) will need to be pruned much more than 3 times to keep them contained in a small pot.
My peppers in 5 gallon hydro just get 2 toppings before forking.
I usually do little "potting up". They sprout in an aerogarden sponge, go into 3 or 4 inch plastic planters till the roots develope, then directly into their semi-final resting place.
Most go into the ground, some go into semi-bonchi projects in little pots, and the hydro's spend a season in buckets (12-14 months there about) before going outside into dirt for the final summer.
I am positive everyone has their own preferred method.
Austin said:
Can you see roots through the plastic? If so, I'd put it in a somewhat bigger pot. The plant won't grow much over the winter, but more root space never hurts. A medium sized container will be easier to take outside on warmish sunny days.
Potting up again in Spring is a simple enough affair. So long as the root ball and soil come out cleanly in one piece, the plant won't even notice.
I'm not a fan of topping the plants, so I can't help there.
winland said:OK, what is the theory / reasoning behind this?
Because that turns into this:
Here is the same comparison with my thai dragon:
Before:
And this is what it looks like this morning:
It is called low stress training. It serves a couple different purposes. The first is to keep my plants low and uniform, my plants will be living their life indoors and i only have 40" of vertical space. Next is that when you pull the top lateral to the stem like this, it allows the plant to push growth hormones to all nodes along the branch. What i have done here is top the plant to create 4-6 new main plant stems and then flattened the plant out creating bushes rather than trees. This also opens up the interior of the plant. Growing indoors, i want to try and get as much of the plant as i can covered in light and not shaded.
interesting. Its like espalier for peppers.
Well this seems quite interesting good pictures there and good reasoning will have to read up more on this subject and decide if its worth it or not 
What interests me is how much does this topping sets back your plant season wise? Like if you keep it under lights year round woudnt be a problem. But lets say you dont and you top this how much longer plants need to produce pods? compared to normal grow.
What interests me is how much does this topping sets back your plant season wise? Like if you keep it under lights year round woudnt be a problem. But lets say you dont and you top this how much longer plants need to produce pods? compared to normal grow.
I myself have done the topped vs. natural in a side by side comparison and its pretty obvious the topped plants are bushier and produced more pods. This wasnt actually something i planned on doing, some animal ate the tops off a few plants about 6 weeks after transplanting.
