Should You Pick Early Pepper Flowers?
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- Опубліковано 11 лип 2024
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In this video, I answer a common question for pepper growers: Should I pick early pepper flower buds? It is typical to see early flowers blooming on young, indoor pepper plants. The plants are entering the fruiting stage, but isn't it a bit early for them to produce peppers?
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Read more about pruning pepper flowers:
peppergeek.com/pinching-off-p...
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In This Video:
0:00 - Intro
0:56 - Should you pick pepper flowers
2:02 - How to prune pepper flowers
2:58 - When to STOP picking pepper flowers
3:51 - When NOT to pick pepper flowers
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Pruning or cutting pepper flowers is a great way to increase pepper yields in the long run. As long as your growing season is long enough, you should cut any early flower buds to encourage the plants to grow more leaves and branches. Once the plants have been outdoors for 2-4 weeks, you can stop cutting off flowers and allow them to produce fruits.
Thanks for watching! - Розваги
Do a side by side, one with picking early flowers and one without!
@Damian Trey my pepper plant flowers are all drying up.
A good sized tree ,about 2and 1/2years old .looks pretty healthy. What to do.
Great idea
@@srijonsarkarclass7erollnum592 Make sure the plants have at least 8 hours of light a day, fertilize them with rock phosphate, and keep the soil moist but don’t overwater and don’t let dry out.
i have 3 scotch bonnets growing rn that are just now producing buds, i may experiment with snipping them off on one of them to see what happens
That would require actual effort. These gardening channels love to just sit and talk.
I was going to give this a thumbs up, but then I saw I already had, so I must have enjoyed it at some earlier point as well, LOL. Keep the info coming!
😄 thanks!
Just started growing recently. You're one of the most reliable sources of information on peppers. I always look to you when I have a question. Subscribed. Keep up the great work!
Thank you! So glad you found us and appreciate the nice words. Welcome :)
Same here!!!
I've been training my Carolina reaper for a few years now, plucking the flowers here and there (still got a few pods) but recently I've committed to pruning all flowers and the growth has been phenomenal.
I live in an equatorial climate so no seasons except for hot, cold (18°C) and rain all year round.. at this point my pepper looks more like an ornamental bush with plenty of shoots and constant growth..
Personally I would like to keep my plant in this state as it's definitely happy.
Previously when allowing it to fruit I noticed that the plant really drained and lost a lot of its mass.
Okay, first time pepper grower here. Pulled the tiny blooms today, it was hard. 😳😊
certainly you are an authority on this subject of pepper plants, and it is lucky for us to learn from you, a lot. thank you so much for so much information.
Very interesting. I transplanted one of mine into a big pot from the garden and gave it a severe pruning. It has done great and now I want it to grow more leaves, so I will start removing the flowers. Right now it is covered with buds!
I did a comparison with two Red Thai Ornamental plants in the same very large pot. One I didn’t pull the flowers, the other, I pulled the flowers for around a week. They were both mature and had always been outside and hardened in this same pot.
The picked plant not only grew much larger, but twice the pods. So…
I’m a fan, but on one or two of my other varieties, I don’t have the patience and want to see some ripe peppers ASAP!
Another good video. We plant out early to mid May here in pdx and generally top at least once and pick off flowers for the first month. Last year we did not prune as vigorously and noticed our peppers were a bit smaller and more spindly than prior years (thoughstill fine). Was especially noticeable on our bells. Also, we try to prune after the first flush of peppers comes on and plants produce a ton more blooms as they try to reproduce before they die...
Always pick off the first flower buds. It allows the plant to grow. I do this and omg I end up with so many peppers and such a strong plant
Did you ever try to pick off the flowers again after the second time when the flowers try to come out again?
@@gregragincajun7968 No. I usually just pick the first ones that bloom. Then plant starts growing taller and thicker.
Ok ty
Thanks for the condensed answer !
Yeah but when do you stop? I only got mine transplanted at the end of May and finally started getting flowers here within the last couple of weeks. I picked the first two flowers on my reaper, but now I'm getting way more buds and I'm not so sure I should keep going with plucking the flowers.
Amazing info in your videos. Some years I have a few peppers even though I have a lot of plants and other years, I have a bumper crop.
Another great video. Very informative. Thanks for giving us a detailed description.
Cool content dude. Thanks for doing these.
Exactly my question... about picking blossoms on a small plant or not. My thought was yes, pick... but you confirmed what I suspected. Thanks!
Thank you, perfect timing, just repotted 2 weeks ago and have many buds on a 6" plant. Going to top and remove flowers ASAP.
Sounds good!
Very valuable advice and timely. Thanks
Just found your channel. Starting my first garden. Thanks for all the information.
Exactly. I feed high N and K after it established its root system. In my climate I get most BELL peppers in the fall since they don't like temps above 80F in fruiting.
Thanks I had concerns but you helped me 👍🏽
Besides tomatoes, I am also a pepper geek.....glad I stumbled onto your channel.
You've provided lots of good advice Nd have answered a couple of my questions. Great video! Thank you.
OH and I subscribed too! I need a pepper geek in my life.❤️
Thanks for the quick info!
Thanks for the info! Makes sense especially for the last part.
Glad you thought it was helpful!
Thank you so much dude. I'm new to growing peppers, always wanted too, but didn't have the space till now. I'm trying a few this season and honestly, your videos help me so much. Just filtering out the useful information, giving direct answers, and expressing your experience is something I am very very grateful for. So thank you, and keep up with the awesome videos!!!
That means a lot, I’m glad you’ve found our channel helpful so far. Good luck this season!
Thanks Calvin and Crystal for these great videos. I noticed flowers on my West Indies Habanero today and wasn't sure if I should pinch them off. and then I saw your video
Thank you for your support! I'm glad you found us and hope your habaneros give you a great harvest. ❤️🔥
I recently purchased a tray of poblanos from a local nursery. Put them directly into five-gallon buckets and this morning I noticed they had buds. But they're still pretty small. They have been outside a month so I plucked them off. I feel the plant needs to at least double in height before it's strong enough for those big fruit.
Just what I wanted to know. Thank you!
My peppers are having a hard time due to three weeks of rain and 100% humidity right after I planted them. Now it is 92 with 100% humidity and they are drooping a little bit. So I am going to trim those flowers off for a couple of weeks at least.
I grew outside and noticed the Thai reds, Poblano, and bells did well in slightly acidic soil.
Thank you! Definitely subscribing
This has been very helpfull thk u so much fairly new to grown own foods had some hit n misses lol but battling on some great tips here will look for heatmatts for seadling ❤ watching from UK 👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻🇬🇧
Fishers Island Lemonade!! Good choice. Love that stuff in the summer.
I’d guess it pays to find out the total lifecycle length from germination to mature fruit for your region. Then work out if you can start the peppers indoors earlier in the year, pick the first flowers off and still get it into the ground and receive a good harvest.
Trial and error following others great general advice.
Great video, you got yourself another subscriber here. Im actually really new to this, but I just germinated 5 Carolina reapers & 6 Trinidad Moruga scorpions, got some nice strong looking sprouts going in about 2 weeks. Hoping they turn out great like your plant. Thanks for the great info aswell.
Sounds great, thanks for subbing, glad to have you here!
Very good information thanks
Generally if you're topping your pepper plants what you'll find is more often than not the top part of the main stem that your cutting off already has pods coming through... so if you're topping your plants you're cutting off those early flowers anyway...
It's spring over here in Aus now so the growing season is underway here. I've got a ghost pepper plant that I topped about a week ago and It's honestly amazing how the plant has responded... all of the side nodes are suddenly jumping to life. I can't wait till it hits full maturity =P
Great I’ll pick mine off my plants.
Thanks for the awesome information!!
Ò
Great tips, thanks for sharing
You bet! Thanks for watching
So true. I live in Oklahoma and Minnesota with different grow times.
I let my Habanero plant do what it does and it rejected some of the flowers it'sself and grew 2 small yet beautifull habanero's (Indoors with very little sunlight buuut watering it with warm water i could hear the roots Slurp away the water straight up so beautifull to see and hear that.
I’ve started over winter them with great success. In the third year.
One year I grew a bonsai bell pepper. 😂 The bees enjoyed the blooms and the tiniest bell pepper won last in show before the whole thing went into the compost.
I've grown a few tiny pepper plants too, just for fun. You can either just keep them in a small container or take a bigger plant and trim it way back, then put it in a small container.
I overwinter my peppers...seems harsh to compost a cute little plant!
Cheers mate really appreciate the vids Only my 2nd year of growing So find them really helpfully We do only have a short season here in London 🇬🇧
Thanks for watching, glad you find us helpful!
I'm in London too, keep the flowers!
Got some superhots growing in Newcastle. Plants are 18 inches tall and strong with flower buds!! Ill be leaving them. They are loving this heat... finally
Super helpful, thank you!!! I'm glad I'm also in New England so I can kind of do exactly what you do 🤣
Yay! Happy to help with the peppers
I’m a New Englander but have transplanted to FL(no pun intended).so,I always dig knowing wat does wat in each zone🤙🏽
Very convenient timing of finding this video lol. I got a plant that's only a foot tall and has flowers (bought it as an established plant from store). Wasn't sure if I should chop or not lol. I KNOW it's supposed to be bigger
Yeah, for storebought plants we usually take off all the flowers/peppers and let the plants get established for a few weeks in its new location
Awesome video, many thanks. Totally new at chili plants
Glad you found it helpful - and hope you enjoy growing peppers this year!
Super helpful thanks!!
Glad it was helpful :)
love the info
Glad you enjoyed!
:Love the hybridization chart on the white board in the background. I have one on my whiteboard at work keeping track of my Tabanero and Chisel hybrid generations (Chisel is one of those exceptions that produces early and often).
A pepper with an amazingly slow growing cycle is Tabasco. It has quite small pods, but takes longer than a Ghost, so not good for a short growing season or a shady garden like mine; but once it finally gets rolling it can be very prolific.
Yep haha - we are actually growing Tabasco for the first time this year so I’m excited to see how it does in our climate and how the raw peppers taste
@@PepperGeek Tabascos are different from other species I've grown -- when ripe they come off the stem easily, are juicy and solid, not hollow, with small seeds, so you can just drop them into something you're cooking or at most cut them in half. They are hot green too, but 50K-100K scovilles when fully ripe (usually orange). They do not keep or ripen well indoors if picked, especially if off the stem, but at the end of the season I cut off whole branches and put them in a watering can or vase to ripen. Tabaneros have most of these characteristics too but are larger, sweeter, and don't take so long to grow and ripen.
Very helpful thanks
I’m growing peppers from packaged seeds my wife bought when she was in Bolivia , the plants at huge and lots of leaves and branches, there’s tons of flowers and have been like that for over month and there’s no change , in Bolivia they’re called locoto peppers
I was thinking the same thing about when not to prune, because its been an abnormally cool late spring night temps in the 50's, and my habeneros are just starting to flower despite starting them back in march. My ghost pepers are still a few weeks away from producing their first flowers. So far we might get two days a week where the day temp is 80 and humid and the night 75, and we can see a significant amount of growth during that period. So hopefully we will have some good peppers by august with a month for them to ripen before it starts cooling down again. I might try to over winter some if the harvest is poor, but i dont think that will much of a problem, we'll just have to see.
However i dont think the issue is a when, but a why. I see you're peppers generally only have a couple or a few flowers and flower buds per node. Mine have between five to nine. Since i dont expect the plant to be able to devote adequate energy to all of those flowers if fertilised successfully, then i will pick the what looks to be the weaker ones to reduce to cluster down to three per node. Otherwise you may expect to see an excess of flower drops that could falsely indicate a disease or other symptom of stress.
i just did that to my bell peppers yesterday. they are now about 4-5 inches tall. I hope they will give me for fruits for the next 1-2 months.
I live in Siberia. The outdoor growing season here for peppers is usually nearly 3 months from June to August. However, in June and August the temperature may drop to nearly freezing at night. It may even freeze, but the latter is extremely rare.
That’s pretty harsh summer weather! I’ll never complain again about the British summer… 😂
I have always had bad results with my peppers. I will try this and see what happens.
Thanks !
I don't do this. After the first couple fruit they grow just fine. My pepper plants are all in 5 gallon buckets. Some are 3-4 feet tall.
Same here.
@@joekidd777 Same here also.
Here's how I try to do it, counting backwards from when cold weather hits (nights under 55F): We get cold nights in end of Sept; count back 90 days for peppers that need 90 days to produce ripe fruit (more for some varieties); start letting flowers develop normally; count back 3-4 weeks, transplant into ground or final container, pick all flowers until then. So basically I remove all flowers until the middle of May or the first of June. It will vary with your climate region and type of peppers.
That's a great tip and super easy to remember!
@@PepperGeek thanks... it about takes longer to explain it than it does to do it. But it works. ;)
This is my first year growing peppers. I’m so thankful for this channel, and any advise!! I thought this post was great. Thanks for the tip!!
@@Callie88Lilly enjoy! Peppers are kind of addicting to grow because there's so many interesting different types. :)
I had no idea ! I was so happy to see flowers and now I have to do this ? On the other hand the plants are small so I don't see how they would carry 10 peppers..
Great video! I'm a new gardener and have about 16 pepper seedlings from mild bell peppers to super hot Scotch Bonnet. I'd love to see a video suggesting containers sizing and/ or raised beds. Some peppers will only get a foot tall and some 4-6 feet. What would be best for each variety.
Great idea - we will most likely do something like this. Quick version is that chinense varieties tend to be large, annuum smaller.
I got a new tabasco pepper plant. Adorable little thing was only 7 inches and had 3 flowers buds on it. I wanted to deadhead it anyway so it would grow bushy and not tall/leggy. My last TPP was too tall and the wind would knock it over [ potted plants, I have a balcony garden.]
Great advice…
Thanks,man
Just tried to go on your website and was BOMBARDED by ads.... super hard to read the info because there is so much useless stuff popping up with ads every 2 seconds. I won't ever go back. Please make a video about pest control in the garden.
Thank you
Could you make a guide on when to put the plants in to a larger pot. I am always running in to the problem on when to transplant my peppers in to larger containers in doors.
Love the channel and website.
Coming very soon on the channel.
@@PepperGeek when??? I require help PLEASE
@@My_Secret_ArtSketchbook ua-cam.com/video/iMOIgEOUyw4/v-deo.html - all about the process
I live in new york and i have been growing a ghost pepper indoors for one year. I picked early flowers for a month. No peppers from last summer to this summer indoors. As soon as i put the plant outside peppers started to pop everywhere.
I started my seeds really late again this year, early May I believe, and will probably only receive around 10-20 immature fruit if I even get any flowers.
I’ve potted them up from solo cup to their final 40cm pots and they’ve been outside a few days now in this UK mini-heatwave. Will see how I get on.
Must...get...greenhouse...built!!!
😂 A greenhouse would be a dream for us too! You could try constraining a few plants to smaller pots for earlier ripening of some pods, though you may end up with a smaller overall yield.
@@PepperGeek thanks for the tips. I only tried growing them from seed last year for the first time and again, I did it too late and got very small fruit.
I’m confident about germinating and growing and potting them up based on your videos and others, I just need to make time next year to start them indoors in March instead of May.
I have a 14x10 greenhouse but I don’t have the door, it was stolen the first night of disassembly. I therefore never had motivation to build it when I got it home...almost 3 years ago.
My plan for next year is to start an extra plant or two, dedicated to early producing, and 'retire' the early producer to the compost pile when the correctly topped and flower-plucked plants start hitting their stride. I know I don't have enough dried and frozen to last the whole time until then!
thanks!
Cool info, thank you sir!
Well I guess next year I'll get better plants. I bought 2 very large bell peppers from the store and had to wait awhile for hubby to get the garden ready. They were about a foot tall and already had flowers and small peppers. Now I'm waiting for the peppers to mature but they are on the ground! Poor plant didn't grow taller! I came here looking for help. Next year I'll be sure to remove the flowers and I'm planning to pinch off the top too.
There is still time left in the season for the plant to grow more! But yeah early pruning buds/peppers can help
I always pick the flowers off until the plant is at least 2-3 feet tall. Some varieties that grow very bushy can be tough (Thinking thai or aji varieties at the top of my head ).
I pick all flowers off until July 1st and then i just let it go crazy. I live in zone 3a and our last frost is usually June 1st so it gives them plenty of time to grow with still enough time to produce. It hasn't failed me yet.
Thank you. And, does this apply to Bell peppers too?
My new bell pepper plants have at least three buds right at the top of the plant. There are no side branches yet. The plants are about 15cm tall.
Need the backstory to the "Can" situation.. Lol
Love your vid's.. Cheers
Basically a challenge started on the Pepper Lovers community on Facebook - grow a pepper from seed in a can over the winter and share your results. Cheers!
Oops... Wish I'd seen this vid before picking off flowers from my super hots here in the South UK 🙈. I'll stop now but really hope I get some rope pods 😢
Should you remove leaves at any time whilst growing? Thanks for great videos. Ken. UK.
My trinidad moruga scorpion pepper plant was dropping its own flowers for weeks and weeks then once the plant hit about 4 feet high with a huge canopy BOOM 💥 within a week I has 20-30 and now there are more pods then I can count
Nicee, hope you have a plan for all that heat 🔥
I planted some plants in pots outside , before fall i put them inside and they have been dropping some leaves but still growing. Would you recommend taking them outside once its warm again or just leave them inside?
Love the video. Just found your channel. Love it. Much love from kc.
Lemon Drop is one of my favorites and it takes a very long time for fruit to mature.
Right, some varieties take super long, one possible reason to leave flowers earlier in the season
It's my favourite too! Great taste and easy to grow in small space. I've even got produce in the middle of the dark winter under grow lights.
Wondering, say for instance in the case of your can pepper plant there, would that be an indicator it's time to upgrade it's container/pot? Like the roots are like "hey, yep we've given it all she's got" so the plant is like "well, on to the next step I guess..."?
That is exactly right, yes. As I said in the video, as long as you transplant up at the right times, you shouldn’t have too many flowers to pluck!
My plants have been outside for about a month, and have been sprouting flowers recently. Some are bigger than others and feel like i should pick the early flowers on the small ones, but they have been out there long enough to let them grow so im not sure.
Like the vids and am wondering what you consider a "long growing season"? I'm in Iowa and have about 5 months to grow most things. Thanks...
So Iowa looks to be zone 5, so a bit shorter than where we are. Still plenty of time for peppers! Long seasons to me would be zone 8+ where you can start seeds and get plants outdoors earlier
My bell pepper plants are mature, about 20-30" tall, have an estimated amount of about 15 plants, all planted in grown, very full of beautiful dark green leaves, I don't see any insects or diseases and I check them everyday. They are growing strong and healthy but no bell peppers.... I don't know what I'm doing wrong or if I'm missing something, I'm lost and ready to just yank them out... frustrated.
Also on some I cut them back (the tops) while they were still young... I read it somewhere, so I thought to try it on some and not others... just incase that method didn't work... but even those shorter ones (which are now just as tall are mature and haven't grown any peppers.
Wow. 🙏
@Pepper Geek - do you have a video on using that Aerogarden behind you to germinate peppers?!🙏🏼 I wasn’t successful this season at germinating peppers indoors (sadly, they started out great, then just when I was ready to “up-pot” them from the starter pods they seemed to just *POOF* - perish).😪 I recently purchased an AG to grow lettuces, which so far🤞🏼have been thriving - and was contemplating using it next Spring to germinate peppers with their “grow anything” pods...just curious! Thanks!!
Sorry to hear about your pepper plants dying...any idea what happened? As for the aerogarden, we will likely do a review-type video of the product. The plant in this video is our second full-sized grow in the unit, and it does a pretty good job! However, for germinating, we personally have more success in traditional starter mix in seed cells since we can better control temperature. Some of the seeds we tried to grow in the AG never sprouted, so 2 plants became 1. Still a great winter project and super fast growth!
I love your vid's! growing pepperplants in the city here and at work behind the window. Jalapeno, sportpepper, anaheim, aji dulce i also used some seeds from a pepper i boughed at the store, some King of the North paprika,... I now have them in 19cm (wide) pots, can i still transfer them to bigger grow bags? Does it affect it?
19cm is an acceptable size, though your yields will be less. It is a bit late to be transplanting in most climates, but you could certainly try!
I planted seeds from a red pepper I got at the grocery store. It's looks really healthy, about 8 inches tall with a strong stem but it only has about 4 or 5 large leaves and not full like yours. Should I have pinched it back at the beginning? I have several more started in small cups that are just coming up now. Thanks. . . . . Update: I just found your pruning video! I don't know if it's too late for my big pepper but I'm going to try it. Hope it works
Alright I'm sold on picking the early flowers to encourage plant growth. But what about selectively picking some flowers on established plants? Does this help create larger peppers? What about towards the end of the season where a flower has little hope of creating a ripe pepper? I live in a cold climate and often end up with just a few small peppers per plant. I've been following a lot of your advice this year and so far things are going pretty good.
As you stated my growing season is short and I’m growing reaper peppers. So I never pick off flowers. My plants might not produce any peppers if I start picking off flowers.
I'm still newer at peppers. Cant find any info on the little white string that is in the flower, growing from the tip of the new pepper growth. Sometimes when I clean up the dried flowers some have a little pepper, and sometimes they have this little white string. I also have some heirlooms chiles that still have it, or it has dried partly.
I have a carolina reaper plant and I got it on earth day from a store called reiffels. It was a decent size, but when I took it home I couldn't care for it cuz I was out of state. When I came back it had almost no leaves on it and it almost died. This month it finally started growin good and now there's flower buds on it. Would those count as early? The plant is only about 13.5 inches tall
Idk if you guys monitor comments this far back but I picked up a ghost pepper plant that was sitting in the discard/ clearance area at my Home Depot. It was by itself and I just figured why not - they gave it to me for a buck or so. It’s got tons of foliage but its short, the leaves are huge and I had to stake it since it was flopping around. It has a ton of tiny flower buds and one actual green ghost pepper growing. Im 6A/6B. Should I just let it do its thing? I transplanted it to a 12’ diameter pot from the little clear thing it was rot bound in
I would probably just let it do it’s thing. Ghosts are not huge so they won’t take up a ton of energy from the plant. With more soil space and some time, the plant should grow larger and keep producing until fall
I bought a live plant a couple weeks ago. I put them in a 8 inch pot, but they are starting to get flowers. I live in Idaho. Pretty sure zone 5 so idk if I should cut them off or not. They definitely aren’t fully matured
So I have all my peppers in 5 gallon buckets and 7 gallon grow bags. They have been outside for a a month in half and I am trying to compensate for not starting germinating a month before tomatoes. All peppers are smaller in height this year can I continue to pull flowers for a few weeks to try and get plants to get larger or should I just let them go since they been outdoor ? Hopefully I didn't ruin my harvest by pulling 20+ buds off each Jalapeño plant they are only 16 in tall though.
Working for me in UK must have 1000 fruits setting! I removed 3 generations let it run on the fourth.
On one plant?! Tell us more!