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topping pepper plants?
- Thread starter luvmesump3pp3rz
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@ Marruk. Trent's glog is > 2018 - The Farm but I couldn't find anything with a search of the over 1600 posts.
@ solid7. My limited experiment here.> NECM 2018 Topped & Not Topped Glog As can be seen there wasn't much difference between topped - untopped at the end of the season in both plant size and fruit production. Of course this was one species/plant type/grow but the results were very telling, hardly any difference by the end of growing season.
As always, YMMV
@ solid7. My limited experiment here.> NECM 2018 Topped & Not Topped Glog As can be seen there wasn't much difference between topped - untopped at the end of the season in both plant size and fruit production. Of course this was one species/plant type/grow but the results were very telling, hardly any difference by the end of growing season.
As always, YMMV
Facebook has a group "Chile Pepper Plant Strippers" group on this subject. That said, I stripped plants a few years back and though I didnt keep accurate records, the plants ( chinense) responded amazingly and bushed out like crazy and looked amazing. I reccommend stripping some of your plants.
Thank you for reporting your results. Yours were the only results I found.The_NorthEast_ChileMan said:
My takeaway from your results was that topping slowed initial growth, which resulted in less overall production.
However... It also seems like you had a short season.
Does this seem a fair assessment?
Its been my suspicion that topping is only beneficial if you've got a long growing season, either due to local climate or starting early indoors... If it's beneficial at all.
I hope to test this next season, as I've already topped almost all of my plants, and they just moved outside this week.
We had a recent hail storm, and I can definitely say that they plants that got some shredding, definitely took a bounce. They are really rocking back hard.
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Stressing plants by mechanically damaging them is a very old trick. It's used on fruit trees to kickstart fruit production. Beating about the trunk with a hickory axe handle gave me grapefruit in year 3 of a new tree. Mangoes in year 3. And it will work for just about any plant, so long as it can handle the punishment.
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Apparently, when stressed as such, they make it a top priority to fulfil their biological mandate. Without getting too technical - it tricks them into thinking that they are dying. There's a boatload of real science behind this.
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But shredding plants won't fly with most growers, because most people can't even stand a pinhole brown spot in leaves, much less something that's had a weed whacker or bamboo stake applied to it.
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Stressing plants by mechanically damaging them is a very old trick. It's used on fruit trees to kickstart fruit production. Beating about the trunk with a hickory axe handle gave me grapefruit in year 3 of a new tree. Mangoes in year 3. And it will work for just about any plant, so long as it can handle the punishment.
.
Apparently, when stressed as such, they make it a top priority to fulfil their biological mandate. Without getting too technical - it tricks them into thinking that they are dying. There's a boatload of real science behind this.
.
But shredding plants won't fly with most growers, because most people can't even stand a pinhole brown spot in leaves, much less something that's had a weed whacker or bamboo stake applied to it.
I have taken pretty much all my plants outside. The smaller ones (3inch) are doing fine but the larger (up to 12 inch) have taken a beating with the winds we've been having. Some have lost most of their large leaves but there is a ton of new growth coming on.
Soon after I took the larger ones out, the almost all started forming buds at the top so I topped them to stop them from flowering when I want them to grow. I have no idea if this is the right thing to do but they all seem pretty happy for now!
Soon after I took the larger ones out, the almost all started forming buds at the top so I topped them to stop them from flowering when I want them to grow. I have no idea if this is the right thing to do but they all seem pretty happy for now!
Marruk said:
1. Yes.
2. By a very small margin.
3. Plants were topped/transplanted to pots early June - harvested mid/late Oct.
4. Other than "short season", I'm in Zone 6a, yes with caveats below....
As I posted, Of course this was one species/plant type/grow but the results were very telling, hardly any difference by the end of growing season., if it was a lanky C. bactuum there may have been different results. Also I had a very wet/rainy season so I was not able to use ferts the way I normally do, read that as lack of regular fertilizing.
Hope this helps!
I have noticed that early topping, especially due to overwintering die-of of "old wood", has resulted in a rebound and bushing out of most varieties, especially Yr. 2 and Yr. 3 plants. I lost only a handful due to other environmental factors, runts, etc. Everything is looking really good now and the seasonal flower drop has subsided, and pods are now showing and growing.
I have a very simple logic:
1. If a plant is already branching at lower nodes and it is starting to get taller than I want before moving it outside then I will "prune" it Veronica Flores style. If it's getting tall and there are no signs of growth at the nodes, then I don't prune it.
2. If I feel a plant is still too tall to withstand wind when I move it outdoors, then I will sink it all the way down the the bottom of a tall pot (bury half to 3/4 the height of the plant).
But generally, though, this is the reason why I don't start seeds until the last week in March - I can't plant out until almost mid-June and I want my plants to be as short and fat as possible when I do plant out. Planting in January or February is just asking for trouble, especially with aphids, in my experience.
During previous years, I have started in ordinary, "pre-fertilised" garden soil and not fertilised at all until moving outdoors. I ran 3500k flourescent tubes 16 hours per day. Cotyledons were smallish and usually with a length of 2-3cm from the stalk, turned yellow and fell off within less than 2 weeks. Branching usually did not occur and the plants just grew straight and tall.
This year, I have experienced a different result. I started in a mix of 10 parts "pre-fertilised" coir, 1 part perlite and 1 part vermiculite. I am also feeding a weak solution of FloraMicro and FloraMato with every watering (5ml each into 10 liters water, 10ml each after second true leaves appear). I am running 6400k LED lights 24 hours per day. Cotyledons have grown to be huge with a length up to 6-7cm from the main stalks and are still dark green and showing no signs of falling off even after 3 weeks or more for most plants. Branching has occured at _every_ node (even at the cotyledons themselves) on _every_ plant of every variety I have going except for a few pubes. I still have nearly 7 weeks until plant out, so let's see if they actually get too tall for my indoor space.
1. If a plant is already branching at lower nodes and it is starting to get taller than I want before moving it outside then I will "prune" it Veronica Flores style. If it's getting tall and there are no signs of growth at the nodes, then I don't prune it.
2. If I feel a plant is still too tall to withstand wind when I move it outdoors, then I will sink it all the way down the the bottom of a tall pot (bury half to 3/4 the height of the plant).
But generally, though, this is the reason why I don't start seeds until the last week in March - I can't plant out until almost mid-June and I want my plants to be as short and fat as possible when I do plant out. Planting in January or February is just asking for trouble, especially with aphids, in my experience.
During previous years, I have started in ordinary, "pre-fertilised" garden soil and not fertilised at all until moving outdoors. I ran 3500k flourescent tubes 16 hours per day. Cotyledons were smallish and usually with a length of 2-3cm from the stalk, turned yellow and fell off within less than 2 weeks. Branching usually did not occur and the plants just grew straight and tall.
This year, I have experienced a different result. I started in a mix of 10 parts "pre-fertilised" coir, 1 part perlite and 1 part vermiculite. I am also feeding a weak solution of FloraMicro and FloraMato with every watering (5ml each into 10 liters water, 10ml each after second true leaves appear). I am running 6400k LED lights 24 hours per day. Cotyledons have grown to be huge with a length up to 6-7cm from the main stalks and are still dark green and showing no signs of falling off even after 3 weeks or more for most plants. Branching has occured at _every_ node (even at the cotyledons themselves) on _every_ plant of every variety I have going except for a few pubes. I still have nearly 7 weeks until plant out, so let's see if they actually get too tall for my indoor space.
Marruk said:
Sorry about not following up; on those turkish caynenne, no difference in production that I could tell. But we grew way the heck more than we could sell so most went the way of bird feed on the compost pile; I didn't have accurate data as we never completely harvested them. Those plants all set pods so heavily that many broke.