@@cowboyblacksmith I did it because they were hitting the grow lights in my greenhouse but there was still weeks ago before i can plant outside, so I still think of it as a good idea
I worked on a farm in Pennsylvania where we grew acres of potatoes & Bell Peppers. As you can imagine, these plants were never fussed over & definitely never pruned. We harvested tons of peppers & shipped them off in crates to large produce suppliers in Philadelphia & Baltimore. Provide space, fertilize new transplants & keep them watered.
Tell me about what you learned when it came to the bell papper farming becausenid like to get into jolepenos for hot sauce because of my geographical location
@@alexwatts6270 because they are asking for essay and people HAVE LIVES its been one day a you have to manually turn on notifications for replies to comments and NOBODY has to respond to ANYTHING ANYONE says
I believe are coping what marijuana growers do because normally they grow indoor plants and topping them gives shorter bushier plant and and the bottom limbs are closer to the lights without burning the tops. This is just my opinion
After doing my research on this topic, the trend I notice is most people advocating topping peppers usually live where their pepper season is long and hot. My pepper season is 6-7 months and they grow like crazy in my heat. I considered starting to top them at the end last season when my potted pepper plants that were as tall as me kept falling over every time we had a storm in September and October (after a summer with little rain.) When I planted last month, I planted a topped and untopped pepper plant of a few different varieties side-by-side for comparison. The untopped ones quickly grew about a foot tall. We are now in tornado season so we get extremely high wind regularly. The untopped peppers couldn't withstand the winds without staking. The topped ones took the winds with no problems. All my other pepper plants that are not included in this experiment got tops got pruned off for that reason alone.
I live in toronto. I topped mine because they were already too tall for my greenhouse, so by topping them I was able to keep them in the greenhouse like a month longer
@@Psyche721 I guess I should have qualified my observation as people who topped their pepper plants specifically for better growth habits for the rest of the season, most of them are from hot climates. Your situation is different since it has more to do with managing size in a limited temporary space. I'm curious. If you had started your peppers later that they didn't get too tall, would you still have pruned the top of them?
HY there in my experiments topping just the two leaves not a whole segment produces the effect of pushing the plant to bush so you just cut the two top leaves and their stems no stalk. it works ! zone 7a
Sounds reasonable. I'll also experiment with this since I live in a tropical area where we can grow peppers all year (zone 12b-ish) so I'm expecting to see a considerable difference (maybe?)
would be cool if you did a video on the different varieties and how caring for them varies - btw hot and sweet peppers - large and small peppers. keep up the good work!
Thanks for the great information. Finally a UA-cam influencer that's not pushing "topping your pepper plants for increased yield". Look forward to more of your season updates. 👍🏻
I am just starting to grow peppers; your info has been very helpful! Right now I am hardening my seedlings to prepare them for transplanting in a raised bed. I love your informative site. THANK YOU!
Good luck, I finally got mine hardened off and outside in their 5 gallon grow bags. First time I hardened them off I went from indoors only to full blazing sun for about an hour and they got bleached on some of the leaves (came back fine though). A cloudy day works great and then sun here and there.
I never prune new plants. As far as over-wintering: I've done severe cut backs as you showed with limited success, half the time the plants died. Last fall I brought in a few full plants - bhut jolokia and habanero - that still had peppers growing on them and they did great in a bay window that gets all the morning sun. I had peppers for several months and then they just continued to grow and by April I had new peppers growing on them. I just moved them outside and they are doing well.
I only prune plants I plan to overwinter. I found most pruned plants start more main stems that I leave on the plant til next season. It has many more places to start new growth as opposed to the “Y” shape of unpruned plants. I end up with tall AND bushy specimens with way more blooms.
I topped my poblanos in Colorado last year. The plants got quite tall, but only 4-6 peppers per plant. I still love being able to throw the few I get on the grill and smell them roasting! I'm going to forget topping this year and see how it goes and hope for more peppers.
Hi, thanks for a well done video. This year is the first year that I have not topped my pepper plants. I did remove the bottom 4-6 inches of leaves and my plants are definitely taller this year but they are also relatively bushy. You have confirmed that this strategy is the correct one for me in my garden. Thank you!
Yes, I make sure to “lollipop” my plants and keep all the vegetation off the lower 6 inches. Mcgritty8842, if there’s no way for the sun to get through to those leaves they aren’t going to do anything other than maybe help the plant keep cool through respiration if you’re in a very hot climate. Even then sunblocking fabric is a better choice. Buy a cheap moisture meter so you’re not overwatering, which can lead to root rot. If growing in pots your plants will likely become root bound at some point. If the meter gets hard to push into the plant it is likely root bound and will be dependent on you giving plant food for it to function well.
I remember a number of years ago everyone started talking about pruning peppers and I saw your video where you talked about pruning them. I did it for two seasons and noticed no difference at all. They weren't more durable, they weren't sturdier, they didn't produce more, but they did take more work. So, I stopped doing it years ago. It's a waste of time.
The same can be said for tomatoes. Don't pinch out the suckers! You will get a better yield if you let your maters to what they do. I think it holds true for watermelons too. Some people trim the vines but I don't and last year I had 20 watermelons get nice and big from one plant, which is a lot.
I would personally say this with a grain of salt; I live in a humid area and pruning tomato suckers is essential if I want my plants to stay healthy into late summer.
Hard to agree fully here, as tomatoes can get pretty unruly and wild. I do think this is true for cherry and grape varieties, but for larger indeterminates we like to prune suckers and keep 1-2 main stems
@@PepperGeek I'm in a much drier climate so not much humidity thank goodness! I am also fortunate to have several acres to garden so letting my tomatoes no matter what variety sprawl is doable. It all goes to show there are multiple ways to approach food growing! :) Happy gardening!
This is my first ever season gardening & growing peppers. I've definitely made a few mistakes already, but my sprouts are looking great! Love all of the information available in your videos, it's been endlessly helpful. Based on all the info you've given, I don't think I'll prune/top-off any of the peppers I'm trying to grow; but I realized I should definitely invest in some stakes or cages for later!
And if you are going to get cages, do put them in place before the plant grows big, because it's easier that way...And why not with stakes too, because if you try to stick the stake close to the plant later on, you could snap more roots than what you would when the plant is still small. And there's wind the supports are important already when planting outside, I think...
I live in northern Canada. Started germination in last week January. My reaper's and chillies just started producing flowers. My 4th year here and still a learning experience. I have to babysit them daily but my friends appreciate the peppers jam I send them every Christmas.
@@mosey5878 i have a cheap ph meter in the soil, (it cost me like 5 bucks (15 pln)) i do this to get a clue on what's going on in the soil. Most fertilizers increase the pH over time and so does regular water. Adding a bit of blueberry fertilizer along side of the regular fertilizer is the way to go in my experience. You can also squeeze a bit of lemon juice or vit c powder in the water before watering. For this i highly recommend getting a pH meter so you can measure the right amount of lemon juice or vit c powder. Cba to find the studies conducted on plants and vit c. But i remember 50% growth increase. This is due to several effects but I didnt get paid for a lecture 🤣😂
I experimented with pruning a few years ago. I did not see decisive advantages or disadvantages on the whole, but I'd also point out that some peppers are naturally very low and bushy early on (many c. chinense varieties) while others are naturally tall (most c. baccatum). This is just their natural growth patterns regardless of light conditions, and it doesn't help to try to modify it. It WOULD make sense to top-prune if you bought a weak and leggy for its type from store and want to fix it. Looking forward to the next pruning experiment!
I live in zone 9B, I don’t prune my bell peppers but I do prune my other peppers just to maintain a bushier plant. Our growing season end around Thanksgiving time. We have plenty of time to harvest.
I'm in zone 6b. Thank you. Since watching your videos on peppers we are also planting peppers other than Bells this season and stopped pruning. Our plants are so full and have lots of peppers, we bought tomato cages for our peppers the year. Question. Have you done a video of planting a heavily pruned pepper back outside in the spring? We'll be watching again your video on how to prune before taking indoors for winter.
That is great! We have not exactly done a video on that topic, but maybe we can. We have an overwintered Hawaiian chili pepper plant that we will be moving back outside soon. Thanks for watching!
Last yr we had a very hot and dry spring all of our local produce farms reported dramatic increases in pepper production If Pruning is increasing ypur production pls consider changing your hardening off process chances are you are not getting enough light for your plants and they are too tall
Thanks! First time grower here and I never topped my plants. Not because I didn't want to, I just didn't think about it. My plants are so tall now and very bushy. And yes, I dont seem to have problems with pests. I've been harvesting my peppers these last two weeks and none of the peppers have show any signs of pests. My plants are Scotch Bonnet and Thai Pepper. I did prune leaves that looked unhealthy. I also had to use support rods. I'm hoping to grow some more peppers, Manzano, Jalapeno, Habanero and Poblano and will not prune them.
There's a huge problem with fungal diseases in my area. To combat this, I remove leaves 6-8 inches above soil as the plant grows. Also remove interior branches to improve airflow. All removal is done very gradually. I typically wait for two to five new leaves to appear before removing one leaf from the bottom/interior. In my experience, removing more has a bad effect on growth, especially in the first several weeks.
Agreed! I've been growing peppers for 10 years and I did it once, just didn't seem like it made much of a difference. I usually get large yields without pruning so I don't see the reason.
My Black Scorpion Tongue pepper I neglected and never pruned ended up saying in the ground through winter and is now the biggest pepper plant I've ever seen in person. The other one I pruned only ended being 1 ft in diameter
It's proven that topping and pruning is beneficial 100% of the time IF you live in a long enough growing zone. There's no reason not to if you have time. They will become larger 100% of the time and they will grow in a more compact way and stronger. This is entirely because they are based in Massachusetts. Being PA and growing mainly superhots, definitely topping and starting early has benefitted me and my farm every single season
Our overwintered peppers get a hefty trim before going into "dormancy", however, some only get a slight trim and actually produce indoors, albeit slow going. Come spring, when they all go outside again, the ones with a light trim do far better than the ones that got a "standard" trim. Granted, that's a bit different situation than topping seedlings, but I have noticed a much better yield on lightly trimmed, overwintered peppers. Also, I do understand that pepper plants will typically produce better in their 2nd year. However, in my experience it works well into several years.(we have a 5 year old carolina reaper "tree" that produces very heavy after a good trim in late winter/early spring, before going outside. As a general rule, we do not prune our pepper plants except for the very lowest leaves.
Need similar video on leave pruning and side shoot pruning. Some of my smaller varieties are becoming so full of side shoots that I worry for airflow. And also, I am used to tomato pruning so I want to get rid of all those suckers :D Its my first year growing peppers, sorry if that is self explanatory :D
I never prune any of my pepper plants. I use heavy mushroom compost in every roll and steak them like a tomato plant. I give them tons and tons of water. Lots of peppers every year!!
I agree with your reasoning. It makes sense. Unfortunately, along with the plants we have outside which are fine, we are also growing cayenne and jalapeno in our Aerogarden Farm 24plus. The plants tend to get too high since there is only 24 inches before it hits the lights.
I prune all of the dead foliage off my pepper plants. I also spray my peppers for fungi and aphids. I have noticed a white fungal growth that seems to come with the aphids. This usually kills the branches and stem of the plant. So far, I have a little yellowing on the leaves (birds eye chili) but I have not lost any of the plants as yet. This is my third/ fourth years with some of these plants. I dehydrate the chili and grind it down into a fine flake or powder. Only for the brave.🤣😂
@@WS-by5cl I use a bug and fungus spray (Yellow 1 liter plastic spray bottle). We shop at Bunnings hardware (Queensland, Australia) the product is a brand called "Brunnings" (Brunnings with the "r" not a typo). I think it is a general garden brand (not exclusive to Bunnings hardware) because I have seen the same brand in other stores/ discount chains etc. I spray the stems and branches every two weeks making sure I go all the way around the whole stem back and front and the branches. It seems to keep the fungus and aphids under control. However, you do need to keep it up or it will kill the whole plant. If you are expecting any rain, then spray after the rain has finished. I have found the stems will darken in colour as the fungus dies off, but it will return quickly if you don't keep up with the spraying regime. I hope this helps cheers.
Any insight into strategic pruning Over Wintered peppers? It seems they want to grow flowers already...the idea is maybe a few snips help force it Into veg mode?
I didn't like pruning top area but the bottom foliage touching soil yes I do. Any yellowish foliage yes I've never tried but pruning with the coming of frost date as tomatoes should work for peppers also.that late season pruning of tomatoes does give the biggest tomatoes of the season I definitely have best seedlings this 4th season for my growlight and after learning from the Pepper Geek (s). Thanks you both
This is different but people sometimes top broad bean plants to make them mature faster, it may not increase or possibly decrease yield but can be a necessary thing if your relay cropping
That's the "problem" I have. Tons of buds on pepper plants.. that may or may not be too small. I heard once that the early buds will stunt plant growth. But now there's so much controversy, I wish I'd never heard any of it, because I don't know what actually to do. I'm in between zone 6-7 too, so shorter growing season (especially if I mess up my plants). My 77 year old mom is like "I guess I never paid attention" 🤔
I’ve never topped plants on purpose. However, the stems to several of my plants snapped on accident so I’m using them as an experiment to see what happens. They got damaged late in the game, they were already pretty big so I’m unsure how it’s going to go. Fingers crossed!
I dropped one of mine while potting up, and accidentally snapped the stem below the leaves … I carefully bandaged it back together and you can’t even tell! I’ve done this with tomatoes too :)
I just pruned one of my plants! My plant bushed out like crazy in four days. I have 8 new branches on the plant now on the first prune. I don't plan on pruning it anymore. I think the first prune is somewhat necessary, but after that no.
Great explanation! I thought topping the plants would set back production in short season gardens and this answered that. I wonder the same about tomatoes when I see them trained on a single leader. I did try to prune out suckers one year and got sunburned tomatoes and very few.
I am going to continue to advocate for topping. There's just no comparison side by side when you see how much they bush out. I have had poor results with larger peppers so I do agree with those types its not best to top.
Southern california has been having a pretty cold year so far, and I've been having issues with mildew, essentially defoliating my peppers in my greenhouse Ive used neem oil, but im sort of just set on having bushy peppers this year. My second year of growing and my first year i had zero issues other than small peppers, but on my second, im off to a rough start.
Cold temps are tough for peppers, they like it very warm. Try to increase airflow if you can, and be sure not to use an over-concentrated solution of neem oil. If it is too heavy, the neem can actually cause the foliage to burn and die.
I made the mistake a couple of years ago and pruned my bells, they did horrible after that. Since then I don't prune them anymore and they do great every year.
I tried pruning my pepper plants for a few years and really didn't notice any difference so I don't anymore... I spend enough time in my garden already doing many other things. I do wish I could totally eliminate ALL weeding - I don't think it's much fun at all :-)
I can comfirm they grow bushy naturally. My jalapeño & ceyanne plants have very thick/woody bases & have bushed out very well. I never pruned them aside from removing damaged leaves or pest infested leaves when treated the infestation.
@@capsicumco this is after I've transplanted it to its final position and it has settled in - I don't think it does it any good to fruit at 12 inches tall when its final height is 3 to 4 feet at maturity - I think it's about focusing its energy into growth at this younger stage and then transitioning gradually as it gets larger to self-regulation and doing its own thing
@user-nh9vl8gp7p if you're feeding correctly, it's got great soil and sunlight then it won't be at its final size of 12 inches. Something is wrong if it's not growing further.
my greek pepperoncini pepper seedlings couldnt handle the weather like the rest of the peppers, so their tops got pruned by me after they drooped over too much. call it natural selection!
I will tell you that I made the mistake of pruning my plants the very first season I started growing pepper plants. This was back in 2020 and I was a brand new grower trying to do everything that every pepper grower who made UA-cam video tutorials taught, and I screwed myself bad by doing this. Of course I really didn't know what I was doing since I was a newbie but it caused many of my plants to fail because I ended up with major leaf lossage since like I said I was a newer grower, and because of the fact that I had already clipped all the lower and on some plants higher leaves or stocks, it didn't take much for my plants to lose the rest of their leaves quickly. Now the only time I ever pull or cut anything off the plant as if it's highly diseased or if they are leaves that have yellowed quite a bit, and of course I do pull flowers off when the plant starts flowering before the plant has gotten to my desired size. As long as I stick with this and other regular maintenance routines each day, they do fantastic 🙂
On a related note, a question: Are some varieties of peppers naturally more short and bushy vs tall and lanky? If so, knowing that about a specific plant might influence a decision to prune or not.
Small chili fruit plants are usually bushier imo. Plants of the Anuum variety are safer to prune if you worry about setting the growth back because they tend to grow faster. (90-100 days).
Hello Sir. In my little corner of southwestern France - which usually enjoys a nice mild-to-warm oceanic climate -, this year’s quite messy weather pattern forces me to a dilemma: half of my pepper plants are already flowering and forming fruits although still very young (like 25-30cm high…). I’m not a huge fan of pruning pepper plants but I’m worrying this early flowering/fructification might divert too many resources to it instead of growing and strengthening. Would you be kind enough to share your take on this specific situation and let me know whether you’d prune or not? Cheers😉
You can just cut off some of the flowers. Same effect as pruning without sacrificing leaves. So it wont delay your harvest as much. Also the less flowers means less fruits which leads to more energy for the remaining fruits and new leaves
I"ve pruned my chilli pepperoncini and it has a strange shape now = main stem is growing streigh up, it has produced only one branch which is growing horizontally.
I grew all kinds of hot peppers and they were too hot to eat them all or even use them all for hot sauce. Now I only grow sweet varieties of peppers and I can eat them all.
Don't worry if you've already pruned, like I said, we used to prune most of our plants and they grew into healthy productive plants. It's just not something we bother with anymore.
I never prune my habaneros, they form a nice bush on their own, with a crown of leaves like a solar panel protecting the richness of beautiful peppers underneath
I don't believe any gardening advice right away, if I hear a logical idea, I will test it. To this end, after I saw a prune video last fall, I pruned one pepper plant and left another 2 alone. The prune job I did was a "winterising" prune that removed a good percentage of the foliage. Maybe 60%. Both plants did their normal dormant thing and began perking up this spring. The one I pruned began rapidly putting out leaves but they are still on the smaller side. Like this video shows, the "nodes" were indeed where the new growth emerged and it now has two large fruits ripening on it. The 2 unpruned began putting out fresh leaves and the older leaves drooped, and popped right off when I applied the most gentle pull on them. These two now have at least eight fruits apiece and growing vigorously! Important to note I am well above Canada in terms of latitude which has radical effects on daylight and growing seasons so ymmv
I prune leaves that come in contact with the soil, yellowed or damaged leaves, flowers while I am trying to get the plants to grow more, and prune them way back before I bring them inside for the winter. Edit: I do NOT top my peppers.
Curtis, have you guys ever cut the bottom part of your stems, added rooting hormone and buried the lower stem? In cannabis they call it logging. You end up with 4x the roots. Plants grow larger and throw off more fruit.
I agree, there is no reason to prune your plants. I will say if you want to start early and train your plants you can really max your yields per plant. I live in really long growing season being in 8a, so I don't bother with it, but if I lived zone 4-5 then I would for sure do it. I've grown peppers under grow lights in the winter in 5 gallon fabric pots, to transplant in the spring and the harvests from such a pampered plant are just insane. I tell you ur neighbors always come looking when you have 8ft tall pepper plants.
@@zunedog31 thank you for the tip. I am ahead of that. watching the damaged parts wither encouraged that. well over golf ball sized hail. some plants just disappeared. seeing new side growth on some now.
I actually prune just one of my plans to see what it was going to do. I say I’m 50-50 on the issue, but I will not be pruning anymore. I’m just gonna let them grow.
This will be my fifth season growing over 300 hot peepers inground, and last year was the first year I opted to not top them. And as a result of not topping them last year, it dramatically impacted my production where I feel that I may got 70% of the Peppers I got the previous three years. 30% less peppers and even a late harvest I think. I’m in 5a and start my seeds February 15th.
Could you measure the yields per month per plant or per 2 week period and compare to make sure you loss some yield and also prune an equal variety plant to see if it is the pruning that set you back?
Btw what peppers do you find tastier as your top 3? For example I find jalapeños delicious blistered in a pan but cayenne and habaneros to have a crass vegetable flavor with blunt heat and not much else, so do you know some that are delicious right off the bat? Thanks!
@@xaviercruz4763have you tried Sugar Rush Peach? I’m relatively new to hot pepper consumption. These are pretty hot for my palate but I find them to be delicious and fruity. I temper the heat with a piece of cheese as a nice appetizer. They are also delicious pickled!
@@xaviercruz4763 if I didn’t have as many responsibilities outside of growing as I did, I probably would do something like that, but it was pretty obvious from my harvests. The fact that I do at least 3 to 5 markets a week And also make many products, it was pretty obvious the first few weeks I started the harvest. The only big thing I made was adding through irrigation overhead sprinkler so I know the roots were getting adequate water.
I grow all my plants on windowsills. My plants are already (in late May) reaching the top of the windowsill which means the top of the plants will get no light. So I'm thinking topping and starting a couple of weeks earlier is a good idea so plants get light on the windowsill for a lot longer. In the past couple of years I've had to top the plants late in the season a when they run out of room. So maybe there are some circumstances where it makes sense for certain taller varieties. Annums seem to have this problem the most whilst slower growing Chinense don't reach the top of the windowsill.
I'm growing my pepper plants under a LED fixture before putting them outdoor. My problem is that they grow bushy and small like the case you say at 04:23. This particular plant is a chocolate habanero. It made small leaves and a lot of branches despite its small size (the plant has roughly 2 months right now). Do you know why my led is keeping all my plants short ? Any help will be appreciated.
Capsicum annum tend to grow like inverted pyramid when not pruned, and that look very neat naturally. But when it is prunned it branch out too much and way too bushy
I used to try topping off my peppers. Wasn't sure if it worked or not, so i stopped. I did have one hot banana pepper plant that exploded with growth & peppers. But again, did topping off create that or would it have happened anyway?
I think pruning is ok if you don’t want to support a tall plant but there are plusses and minuses to what you do. If you are worrying about setting your plants back just start them earlier. I will not be pruning my peppers.
Me watching this after I pruned my peppers watching your pruning peppers video ..
Same 😂
Same.
Same. 😢
Same
Yup
I needed this 2 weeks ago....😂😂😂
It’s worth trying yourself to see, nothing wrong with that.
@@cowboyblacksmith I did it because they were hitting the grow lights in my greenhouse but there was still weeks ago before i can plant outside, so I still think of it as a good idea
ME TOO!!! I pruned all of mine now following their last video on how to 🤣
@@MJerryTV They will grow back. Last year the deer ate mine way down 3 times and they bounced right back.
Don't fret! Definitely not the worst thing to try pruning. We've just changed our ways in the last few years.
I worked on a farm in Pennsylvania where we grew acres of potatoes & Bell Peppers. As you can imagine, these plants were never fussed over & definitely never pruned. We harvested tons of peppers & shipped them off in crates to large produce suppliers in Philadelphia & Baltimore. Provide space, fertilize new transplants & keep them watered.
What was the yield per plant per 2 week period? How much was it sold for a pound?
Tell me about what you learned when it came to the bell papper farming becausenid like to get into jolepenos for hot sauce because of my geographical location
What npk ratios do you run throughout the season
Lol strange no response
@@alexwatts6270 because they are asking for essay and people HAVE LIVES its been one day a you have to manually turn on notifications for replies to comments and NOBODY has to respond to ANYTHING ANYONE says
Whenever there's a controversy about whether or not to do something, I always pick the one that's easiest.
😂
Giggity!!
I believe are coping what marijuana growers do because normally they grow indoor plants and topping them gives shorter bushier plant and and the bottom limbs are closer to the lights without burning the tops. This is just my opinion
@@Scoondog ohh when using grow lights that could actually be a really good reason, good idea
After doing my research on this topic, the trend I notice is most people advocating topping peppers usually live where their pepper season is long and hot. My pepper season is 6-7 months and they grow like crazy in my heat. I considered starting to top them at the end last season when my potted pepper plants that were as tall as me kept falling over every time we had a storm in September and October (after a summer with little rain.) When I planted last month, I planted a topped and untopped pepper plant of a few different varieties side-by-side for comparison. The untopped ones quickly grew about a foot tall. We are now in tornado season so we get extremely high wind regularly. The untopped peppers couldn't withstand the winds without staking. The topped ones took the winds with no problems. All my other pepper plants that are not included in this experiment got tops got pruned off for that reason alone.
I live in toronto. I topped mine because they were already too tall for my greenhouse, so by topping them I was able to keep them in the greenhouse like a month longer
@@Psyche721 I guess I should have qualified my observation as people who topped their pepper plants specifically for better growth habits for the rest of the season, most of them are from hot climates. Your situation is different since it has more to do with managing size in a limited temporary space. I'm curious. If you had started your peppers later that they didn't get too tall, would you still have pruned the top of them?
HY there in my experiments topping just the two leaves not a whole segment produces the effect of pushing the plant to bush so you just cut the two top leaves and their stems no stalk. it works ! zone 7a
Sounds reasonable. I'll also experiment with this since I live in a tropical area where we can grow peppers all year (zone 12b-ish) so I'm expecting to see a considerable difference (maybe?)
would be cool if you did a video on the different varieties and how caring for them varies - btw hot and sweet peppers - large and small peppers.
keep up the good work!
Thanks for the idea!
Severely prune for over-wintering. Spring regrowth is amazing!
Do you do anything to the plant in the spring, summer when you put it back out into the garden. I'm in zone 6. I overwintered 1 plant just to try it.
@@debrakrause7570I overwinter too. I try to keep the flowers off until they go outside, but that’s it.
Only if it's an outdoors plant. If it's a potted indoor plant, then don't.
Thanks for the great information. Finally a UA-cam influencer that's not pushing "topping your pepper plants for increased yield". Look forward to more of your season updates. 👍🏻
I am just starting to grow peppers; your info has been very helpful! Right now I am hardening my seedlings to prepare them for transplanting in a raised bed. I love your informative site. THANK YOU!
Good luck, I finally got mine hardened off and outside in their 5 gallon grow bags. First time I hardened them off I went from indoors only to full blazing sun for about an hour and they got bleached on some of the leaves (came back fine though). A cloudy day works great and then sun here and there.
Grow Bigger Peppers (7 tips). We'll be watching again. We had an awesome harvest last season. Thank you so much.
I never prune new plants. As far as over-wintering: I've done severe cut backs as you showed with limited success, half the time the plants died. Last fall I brought in a few full plants - bhut jolokia and habanero - that still had peppers growing on them and they did great in a bay window that gets all the morning sun. I had peppers for several months and then they just continued to grow and by April I had new peppers growing on them. I just moved them outside and they are doing well.
I just pruned my pepper plants a day ago after I watched your pruning pepper video dated 4 years ago. 😢
I only prune plants I plan to overwinter. I found most pruned plants start more main stems that I leave on the plant til next season. It has many more places to start new growth as opposed to the “Y” shape of unpruned plants. I end up with tall AND bushy specimens with way more blooms.
Interesting, thanks!
I topped my poblanos in Colorado last year. The plants got quite tall, but only 4-6 peppers per plant. I still love being able to throw the few I get on the grill and smell them roasting! I'm going to forget topping this year and see how it goes and hope for more peppers.
Hi, thanks for a well done video. This year is the first year that I have not topped my pepper plants. I did remove the bottom 4-6 inches of leaves and my plants are definitely taller this year but they are also relatively bushy. You have confirmed that this strategy is the correct one for me in my garden. Thank you!
I appreciate this, as I’m a new gardener and learning as I go ❤
Yes, I make sure to “lollipop” my plants and keep all the vegetation off the lower 6 inches. Mcgritty8842, if there’s no way for the sun to get through to those leaves they aren’t going to do anything other than maybe help the plant keep cool through respiration if you’re in a very hot climate. Even then sunblocking fabric is a better choice. Buy a cheap moisture meter so you’re not overwatering, which can lead to root rot. If growing in pots your plants will likely become root bound at some point. If the meter gets hard to push into the plant it is likely root bound and will be dependent on you giving plant food for it to function well.
If the meter gets hard to push into the soil I meant.
I remember a number of years ago everyone started talking about pruning peppers and I saw your video where you talked about pruning them. I did it for two seasons and noticed no difference at all. They weren't more durable, they weren't sturdier, they didn't produce more, but they did take more work. So, I stopped doing it years ago. It's a waste of time.
Thank you so much for making this video. I believe this will finally end the EXHAUSTING topping debate. Pepper Geek for the win!
The same can be said for tomatoes. Don't pinch out the suckers! You will get a better yield if you let your maters to what they do. I think it holds true for watermelons too. Some people trim the vines but I don't and last year I had 20 watermelons get nice and big from one plant, which is a lot.
I would personally say this with a grain of salt; I live in a humid area and pruning tomato suckers is essential if I want my plants to stay healthy into late summer.
Hard to agree fully here, as tomatoes can get pretty unruly and wild. I do think this is true for cherry and grape varieties, but for larger indeterminates we like to prune suckers and keep 1-2 main stems
@@PepperGeek I'm in a much drier climate so not much humidity thank goodness! I am also fortunate to have several acres to garden so letting my tomatoes no matter what variety sprawl is doable. It all goes to show there are multiple ways to approach food growing! :) Happy gardening!
This is my first ever season gardening & growing peppers. I've definitely made a few mistakes already, but my sprouts are looking great! Love all of the information available in your videos, it's been endlessly helpful.
Based on all the info you've given, I don't think I'll prune/top-off any of the peppers I'm trying to grow; but I realized I should definitely invest in some stakes or cages for later!
And if you are going to get cages, do put them in place before the plant grows big, because it's easier that way...And why not with stakes too, because if you try to stick the stake close to the plant later on, you could snap more roots than what you would when the plant is still small. And there's wind the supports are important already when planting outside, I think...
I live in northern Canada. Started germination in last week January. My reaper's and chillies just started producing flowers. My 4th year here and still a learning experience. I have to babysit them daily but my friends appreciate the peppers jam I send them every Christmas.
I put a fan on my indoor seedlings to encourage stronger stems before moving them outside.
me to. i hope they will grow strong
Vit b and ph lvls below 7 also helps
@@crithappened how to use vit b.and how you maintain ph lvls?
@@mosey5878 i have a cheap ph meter in the soil, (it cost me like 5 bucks (15 pln)) i do this to get a clue on what's going on in the soil.
Most fertilizers increase the pH over time and so does regular water. Adding a bit of blueberry fertilizer along side of the regular fertilizer is the way to go in my experience. You can also squeeze a bit of lemon juice or vit c powder in the water before watering. For this i highly recommend getting a pH meter so you can measure the right amount of lemon juice or vit c powder.
Cba to find the studies conducted on plants and vit c. But i remember 50% growth increase. This is due to several effects but I didnt get paid for a lecture 🤣😂
@@mosey5878 vit b for plants is not that expensive and you dont need too much of it
Arrived at the exact same position and same points earlier this season myself.. 🔥🔥
I experimented with pruning a few years ago. I did not see decisive advantages or disadvantages on the whole, but I'd also point out that some peppers are naturally very low and bushy early on (many c. chinense varieties) while others are naturally tall (most c. baccatum). This is just their natural growth patterns regardless of light conditions, and it doesn't help to try to modify it. It WOULD make sense to top-prune if you bought a weak and leggy for its type from store and want to fix it.
Looking forward to the next pruning experiment!
I live in zone 9B, I don’t prune my bell peppers but I do prune my other peppers just to maintain a bushier plant. Our growing season end around Thanksgiving time. We have plenty of time to harvest.
I’m in a 9b too. Do you done cover crop during/after harvest?
I think I would have to try pruning again if we ever moved to a warmer climate. Definitely changes things with a longer season.
I'm in zone 6b. Thank you. Since watching your videos on peppers we are also planting peppers other than Bells this season and stopped pruning. Our plants are so full and have lots of peppers, we bought tomato cages for our peppers the year. Question.
Have you done a video of planting a heavily pruned pepper back outside in the spring? We'll be watching again your video on how to prune before taking indoors for winter.
That is great! We have not exactly done a video on that topic, but maybe we can. We have an overwintered Hawaiian chili pepper plant that we will be moving back outside soon. Thanks for watching!
Last yr we had a very hot and dry spring all of our local produce farms reported dramatic increases in pepper production
If Pruning is increasing ypur production pls consider changing your hardening off process chances are you are not getting enough light for your plants and they are too tall
Thanks! First time grower here and I never topped my plants. Not because I didn't want to, I just didn't think about it. My plants are so tall now and very bushy. And yes, I dont seem to have problems with pests. I've been harvesting my peppers these last two weeks and none of the peppers have show any signs of pests. My plants are Scotch Bonnet and Thai Pepper. I did prune leaves that looked unhealthy. I also had to use support rods.
I'm hoping to grow some more peppers, Manzano, Jalapeno, Habanero and Poblano and will not prune them.
There's a huge problem with fungal diseases in my area. To combat this, I remove leaves 6-8 inches above soil as the plant grows. Also remove interior branches to improve airflow. All removal is done very gradually. I typically wait for two to five new leaves to appear before removing one leaf from the bottom/interior. In my experience, removing more has a bad effect on growth, especially in the first several weeks.
👏👏👏👏👏 Great Video on Pruning!
Agreed! I've been growing peppers for 10 years and I did it once, just didn't seem like it made much of a difference. I usually get large yields without pruning so I don't see the reason.
I'm so glad you finally stoppes topping your plants! They grow much stronger when they branch out naturally when they are a bit higher. 💚
My Black Scorpion Tongue pepper I neglected and never pruned ended up saying in the ground through winter and is now the biggest pepper plant I've ever seen in person. The other one I pruned only ended being 1 ft in diameter
It's proven that topping and pruning is beneficial 100% of the time IF you live in a long enough growing zone. There's no reason not to if you have time. They will become larger 100% of the time and they will grow in a more compact way and stronger. This is entirely because they are based in Massachusetts. Being PA and growing mainly superhots, definitely topping and starting early has benefitted me and my farm every single season
@@WagwanHappyPappyHapPap you may get more fruit but you get higher quality fruit from single leaders of anything
Our overwintered peppers get a hefty trim before going into "dormancy", however, some only get a slight trim and actually produce indoors, albeit slow going. Come spring, when they all go outside again, the ones with a light trim do far better than the ones that got a "standard" trim. Granted, that's a bit different situation than topping seedlings, but I have noticed a much better yield on lightly trimmed, overwintered peppers. Also, I do understand that pepper plants will typically produce better in their 2nd year. However, in my experience it works well into several years.(we have a 5 year old carolina reaper "tree" that produces very heavy after a good trim in late winter/early spring, before going outside.
As a general rule, we do not prune our pepper plants except for the very lowest leaves.
Need similar video on leave pruning and side shoot pruning. Some of my smaller varieties are becoming so full of side shoots that I worry for airflow. And also, I am used to tomato pruning so I want to get rid of all those suckers :D
Its my first year growing peppers, sorry if that is self explanatory :D
I never prune any of my pepper plants. I use heavy mushroom compost in every roll and steak them like a tomato plant. I give them tons and tons of water. Lots of peppers every year!!
I agree with your reasoning. It makes sense. Unfortunately, along with the plants we have outside which are fine, we are also growing cayenne and jalapeno in our Aerogarden Farm 24plus. The plants tend to get too high since there is only 24 inches before it hits the lights.
I prune all of the dead foliage off my pepper plants. I also spray my peppers for fungi and aphids. I have noticed a white fungal growth that seems to come with the aphids. This usually kills the branches and stem of the plant. So far, I have a little yellowing on the leaves (birds eye chili) but I have not lost any of the plants as yet. This is my third/ fourth years with some of these plants. I dehydrate the chili and grind it down into a fine flake or powder. Only for the brave.🤣😂
What spray do you use?
@@WS-by5cl I use a bug and fungus spray (Yellow 1 liter plastic spray bottle). We shop at Bunnings hardware (Queensland, Australia) the product is a brand called "Brunnings" (Brunnings with the "r" not a typo).
I think it is a general garden brand (not exclusive to Bunnings hardware) because I have seen the same brand in other stores/ discount chains etc.
I spray the stems and branches every two weeks making sure I go all the way around the whole stem back and front and the branches.
It seems to keep the fungus and aphids under control. However, you do need to keep it up or it will kill the whole plant.
If you are expecting any rain, then spray after the rain has finished.
I have found the stems will darken in colour as the fungus dies off, but it will return quickly if you don't keep up with the spraying regime.
I hope this helps cheers.
Thank you for sharing your experience. Most of the topping videos are shorts and reels lol.
I've seen a lot of that lately, hard to cover the topic adequately in 30 seconds!
Any insight into strategic pruning Over Wintered peppers? It seems they want to grow flowers already...the idea is maybe a few snips help force it Into veg mode?
I'm doing that same experiment this year. Some are pruned and some are not. Thanks for the information.
Good to know. I'll just let mine grow this year.
Good experiment!
Ive pruned half of my peppers in the past, and never really saw a major difference once everything got fully established in their final pots
I didn't like pruning top area but the bottom foliage touching soil yes I do.
Any yellowish foliage yes
I've never tried but pruning with the coming of frost date as tomatoes should work for peppers also.that late season pruning of tomatoes does give the biggest tomatoes of the season
I definitely have best seedlings this 4th season for my growlight and after learning from the Pepper Geek (s).
Thanks you both
I just topped mine yesterday, like you said 🤪😆
This is different but people sometimes top broad bean plants to make them mature faster, it may not increase or possibly decrease yield but can be a necessary thing if your relay cropping
What about snipping off flower blossoms early in the season before the plant is bushy?
That's the "problem" I have. Tons of buds on pepper plants.. that may or may not be too small. I heard once that the early buds will stunt plant growth. But now there's so much controversy, I wish I'd never heard any of it, because I don't know what actually to do. I'm in between zone 6-7 too, so shorter growing season (especially if I mess up my plants).
My 77 year old mom is like "I guess I never paid attention" 🤔
I've had a lot of success not pruning but removing flowers until the plant has vegged to where you want it 👍🍀
Great video!
I’ve never topped plants on purpose. However, the stems to several of my plants snapped on accident so I’m using them as an experiment to see what happens. They got damaged late in the game, they were already pretty big so I’m unsure how it’s going to go. Fingers crossed!
I dropped one of mine while potting up, and accidentally snapped the stem below the leaves … I carefully bandaged it back together and you can’t even tell! I’ve done this with tomatoes too :)
I don't prune, but I should have probably cut the top off my 4.5 ft cayanne last year. I had to use a broom handle as a stake. The plant was so Tall!
I just pruned one of my plants! My plant bushed out like crazy in four days. I have 8 new branches on the plant now on the first prune. I don't plan on pruning it anymore. I think the first prune is somewhat necessary, but after that no.
Great explanation! I thought topping the plants would set back production in short season gardens and this answered that. I wonder the same about tomatoes when I see them trained on a single leader. I did try to prune out suckers one year and got sunburned tomatoes and very few.
I am going to continue to advocate for topping. There's just no comparison side by side when you see how much they bush out. I have had poor results with larger peppers so I do agree with those types its not best to top.
Tons of great info!!! Thank you
Southern california has been having a pretty cold year so far, and I've been having issues with mildew, essentially defoliating my peppers in my greenhouse
Ive used neem oil, but im sort of just set on having bushy peppers this year.
My second year of growing and my first year i had zero issues other than small peppers, but on my second, im off to a rough start.
Cold temps are tough for peppers, they like it very warm. Try to increase airflow if you can, and be sure not to use an over-concentrated solution of neem oil. If it is too heavy, the neem can actually cause the foliage to burn and die.
I made the mistake a couple of years ago and pruned my bells, they did horrible after that. Since then I don't prune them anymore and they do great every year.
I tried pruning my pepper plants for a few years and really didn't notice any difference so I don't anymore... I spend enough time in my garden already doing many other things. I do wish I could totally eliminate ALL weeding - I don't think it's much fun at all :-)
I can comfirm they grow bushy naturally. My jalapeño & ceyanne plants have very thick/woody bases & have bushed out very well. I never pruned them aside from removing damaged leaves or pest infested leaves when treated the infestation.
I do pinch the top growing point, and I remove the first dozen or so flowers to encourage green growth rather than fruiting
Peppers fruit and vegetate simultaneously. All you're doing is reducing the number of peppers you harvest.
@@capsicumco this is after I've transplanted it to its final position and it has settled in - I don't think it does it any good to fruit at 12 inches tall when its final height is 3 to 4 feet at maturity - I think it's about focusing its energy into growth at this younger stage and then transitioning gradually as it gets larger to self-regulation and doing its own thing
@user-nh9vl8gp7p if you're feeding correctly, it's got great soil and sunlight then it won't be at its final size of 12 inches. Something is wrong if it's not growing further.
grow lights and plant at begining of december u got plenty of time to grow
my greek pepperoncini pepper seedlings couldnt handle the weather like the rest of the peppers, so their tops got pruned by me after they drooped over too much. call it natural selection!
I will tell you that I made the mistake of pruning my plants the very first season I started growing pepper plants. This was back in 2020 and I was a brand new grower trying to do everything that every pepper grower who made UA-cam video tutorials taught, and I screwed myself bad by doing this. Of course I really didn't know what I was doing since I was a newbie but it caused many of my plants to fail because I ended up with major leaf lossage since like I said I was a newer grower, and because of the fact that I had already clipped all the lower and on some plants higher leaves or stocks, it didn't take much for my plants to lose the rest of their leaves quickly. Now the only time I ever pull or cut anything off the plant as if it's highly diseased or if they are leaves that have yellowed quite a bit, and of course I do pull flowers off when the plant starts flowering before the plant has gotten to my desired size. As long as I stick with this and other regular maintenance routines each day, they do fantastic 🙂
On a related note, a question: Are some varieties of peppers naturally more short and bushy vs tall and lanky? If so, knowing that about a specific plant might influence a decision to prune or not.
Small chili fruit plants are usually bushier imo. Plants of the Anuum variety are safer to prune if you worry about setting the growth back because they tend to grow faster. (90-100 days).
Hello Sir.
In my little corner of southwestern France - which usually enjoys a nice mild-to-warm oceanic climate -, this year’s quite messy weather pattern forces me to a dilemma: half of my pepper plants are already flowering and forming fruits although still very young (like 25-30cm high…). I’m not a huge fan of pruning pepper plants but I’m worrying this early flowering/fructification might divert too many resources to it instead of growing and strengthening.
Would you be kind enough to share your take on this specific situation and let me know whether you’d prune or not?
Cheers😉
Great job 👍
i am glad i see this i wont prune my pepperplants. do i need to do that with tomato and cucumbers?
I have those exact shells how do you put them together😅
I need more videos😂 I love watching you guys
You can just cut off some of the flowers. Same effect as pruning without sacrificing leaves. So it wont delay your harvest as much. Also the less flowers means less fruits which leads to more energy for the remaining fruits and new leaves
1:57 yes, I literally did it yesterday. How did you know?
Hah! No biggie, the plants will bounce back
I never purne any of my plants. And yes it thrives loaded of fruits every year. The only time I take off the leaves is when its bruned or dead.
I have a two stem jalapeno and I pruned one side, my own experiment!
I"ve pruned my chilli pepperoncini and it has a strange shape now = main stem is growing streigh up, it has produced only one branch which is growing horizontally.
I grew all kinds of hot peppers and they were too hot to eat them all or even use them all for hot sauce. Now I only grow sweet varieties of peppers and I can eat them all.
Don't worry if you've already pruned, like I said, we used to prune most of our plants and they grew into healthy productive plants. It's just not something we bother with anymore.
I never prune my habaneros, they form a nice bush on their own, with a crown of leaves like a solar panel protecting the richness of beautiful peppers underneath
I cut some of mine, the top new growth was funky
I don't believe any gardening advice right away, if I hear a logical idea, I will test it. To this end, after I saw a prune video last fall, I pruned one pepper plant and left another 2 alone. The prune job I did was a "winterising" prune that removed a good percentage of the foliage. Maybe 60%.
Both plants did their normal dormant thing and began perking up this spring.
The one I pruned began rapidly putting out leaves but they are still on the smaller side. Like this video shows, the "nodes" were indeed where the new growth emerged and it now has two large fruits ripening on it.
The 2 unpruned began putting out fresh leaves and the older leaves drooped, and popped right off when I applied the most gentle pull on them. These two now have at least eight fruits apiece and growing vigorously!
Important to note I am well above Canada in terms of latitude which has radical effects on daylight and growing seasons so ymmv
I prune leaves that come in contact with the soil, yellowed or damaged leaves, flowers while I am trying to get the plants to grow more, and prune them way back before I bring them inside for the winter. Edit: I do NOT top my peppers.
Curtis, have you guys ever cut the bottom part of your stems, added rooting hormone and buried the lower stem? In cannabis they call it logging. You end up with 4x the roots. Plants grow larger and throw off more fruit.
Great information. Thank you for sharing 💚💚💚😁
Peppergeek do you think pruning based on your results would seem to work well if the peppers produce all year in a warm-hot zone frost free?
I agree, there is no reason to prune your plants. I will say if you want to start early and train your plants you can really max your yields per plant. I live in really long growing season being in 8a, so I don't bother with it, but if I lived zone 4-5 then I would for sure do it. I've grown peppers under grow lights in the winter in 5 gallon fabric pots, to transplant in the spring and the harvests from such a pampered plant are just insane. I tell you ur neighbors always come looking when you have 8ft tall pepper plants.
Yeah I definitely don't prune them because I try and grow as many as I can in a small space.
They seem to take such a long time to recover from pruning... I'm a tomato grower and the slowness of peppers always frustrates me!
Oh yeah, much different growth habit and rate. Tomatoes are always so easy to get going!
excellent. i accidentally topped one but all my pepper plants bush out naturally, zone 4b I have to keep them in my greenhouse.. and baby them
hail pruned my peppers a few weeks ago.
That's brutal. Be sure to cut out the damaged foliage.
@@zunedog31 thank you for the tip. I am ahead of that. watching the damaged parts wither encouraged that. well over golf ball sized hail. some plants just disappeared. seeing new side growth on some now.
I actually prune just one of my plans to see what it was going to do. I say I’m 50-50 on the issue, but I will not be pruning anymore. I’m just gonna let them grow.
the only "pruning" I do is removing yellow or browned leaves.
Nice to watch after I done pruned mine lol
Sorry, don't worry about it though! They'll bounce back, we did it for several seasons
This will be my fifth season growing over 300 hot peepers inground, and last year was the first year I opted to not top them.
And as a result of not topping them last year, it dramatically impacted my production where I feel that I may got 70% of the Peppers I got the previous three years.
30% less peppers and even a late harvest I think.
I’m in 5a and start my seeds February 15th.
Could you measure the yields per month per plant or per 2 week period and compare to make sure you loss some yield and also prune an equal variety plant to see if it is the pruning that set you back?
Btw what peppers do you find tastier as your top 3? For example I find jalapeños delicious blistered in a pan but cayenne and habaneros to have a crass vegetable flavor with blunt heat and not much else, so do you know some that are delicious right off the bat? Thanks!
@@xaviercruz4763have you tried Sugar Rush Peach? I’m relatively new to hot pepper consumption. These are pretty hot for my palate but I find them to be delicious and fruity. I temper the heat with a piece of cheese as a nice appetizer. They are also delicious pickled!
Same zone, same seed start date over here. 👋 when did you get yours in the ground?
@@xaviercruz4763 if I didn’t have as many responsibilities outside of growing as I did, I probably would do something like that, but it was pretty obvious from my harvests. The fact that I do at least 3 to 5 markets a week And also make many products, it was pretty obvious the first few weeks I started the harvest. The only big thing I made was adding through irrigation overhead sprinkler so I know the roots were getting adequate water.
Here in the UK we just don't have the season for the plants to catch up after a prune
I grow all my plants on windowsills. My plants are already (in late May) reaching the top of the windowsill which means the top of the plants will get no light. So I'm thinking topping and starting a couple of weeks earlier is a good idea so plants get light on the windowsill for a lot longer. In the past couple of years I've had to top the plants late in the season a
when they run out of room.
So maybe there are some circumstances where it makes sense for certain taller varieties. Annums seem to have this problem the most whilst slower growing Chinense don't reach the top of the windowsill.
I'm growing my pepper plants under a LED fixture before putting them outdoor. My problem is that they grow bushy and small like the case you say at 04:23.
This particular plant is a chocolate habanero. It made small leaves and a lot of branches despite its small size (the plant has roughly 2 months right now).
Do you know why my led is keeping all my plants short ? Any help will be appreciated.
Capsicum annum tend to grow like inverted pyramid when not pruned, and that look very neat naturally. But when it is prunned it branch out too much and way too bushy
I used to try topping off my peppers. Wasn't sure if it worked or not, so i stopped. I did have one hot banana pepper plant that exploded with growth & peppers. But again, did topping off create that or would it have happened anyway?
5:45 what is that purple beautifully thing on the left?
Someone’s been attending my “anti topping” classes in Pepper Growing For Beginners on Facebook! 😂 Come to the light Calvin! ❤ We’ve been waiting!
My plants were stunted by cold weather. I pruned them, and all is well again.
Wish I would have saw this 3 minutes ago. I saw the 4 year prunning video, I feel so bad seeing little possible peppers sprouting
I think pruning is ok if you don’t want to support a tall plant but there are plusses and minuses to what you do. If you are worrying about setting your plants back just start them earlier. I will not be pruning my peppers.