Pruning Pepper Plants - How To Prune Peppers For Bigger Harvests - Pepper Geek
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- Опубліковано 26 лип 2024
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In this video, we share a simple method for pruning pepper plants. The idea is that, by pruning, you help build a stronger stem, a bushier plant, and perhaps a larger harvest. Here is how to prune pepper plants early in the season.
While topping your peppers is an option, we no longer prune our plants. The reason is that we have seen little overall gain in terms of yield, so we don't bother anymore!
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Read more about pruning:
peppergeek.com/pruning-pepper...
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More pepper plant pruning tips:
- Use sharp scissors or pruning shears
- Don't prune too late in the season
- Don't fertilize right after pruning (wait a week or so)
I hope this helps and thanks for watching Pepper Geek! - Розваги
Lovely to see the end result after a few weeks. Normally videos stop after showing the prune and say "trust me guys it will work" and never show what happens after the prune. Thanks
:)
Came to say this.
Agreed!
SAME
Thanks for the very important fine tips
@@PepperGeek Is there an update on the harvest results? This is an older video, have you continued pruning?
Thanks for showing the before and after.
Loved your quick lesson on pruning, and also that you showed the result of doing so. It's always nice to see the actual results and not just hear about what it will look like.
Excellent presentation. I like that you stated what you are going to cover, then covering it smoothly and succinctly. I also love that you showed the plants a couple weeks after pruning. Thank you!
Glad it was helpful, much appreciated!
Yeah, deer did this for me early in the season :( but I was happy to see that the plant seems to have rebounded and grown more strongly, so I'll probably do it myself in the future.
lol thanks science deer
I just did that a couple days ago. It was pretty difficult emotionally, lol
You doin' alright?
@@Zizzyyzz yes, thank you for asking. It is cold where I live right now so trying to plant the spring garden is more frustrating. How are you?
@@poolman8676 Doing well! We are in Central CA, so our growing season is almost year round. It'll be rainy and gloomy for the next two says, but low high 70s and low 80s beginning next week. Got to figure out what's going on with my jalapeño plant, though. It was producing nice sized peppers a few months ago (incidentally when I was paying it very little attention). Now, the peppers are very very small and don't seem to be growing. I'll be troubleshooting, but I'm thinking that they'll improve once it starts heating up again.
@@Zizzyyzz I'm in SoCal, and it's been cold and windy. My friend down the street started his garden and lost everything because we had a freeze about a week ago. I've learned throughout the years not to plan until May. Weather's been really strange lately. It snows where I live so we only have two seasons to grow
@@Zizzyyzz yes, I'm a desert rat. I love the heat, and so do the peppers, tomatoes, eggplant, basil, etc LOL
Finally brought myself to prune some of my seedlings for the first time, and a week or so later I can already see how the new growth below has been developing rapidly! Exciting stuff!
Sounds great!
you can also put the cutting/top into water and start a new plant.....yes or no?
@@legacychannel7738 typically my cuts are too small to be able to replant
Any pepper plants to avoid pruning?
Just a tip. My wife always use my cut off chili leaves in her cooking. Stir fry and soups mostly. I never throw away chili leaves. We even grow some plants for just that purpose :)
Chili leaves tastes superb as well. We also use them for cooking our dishes, though we only use spare chili plants who dont fruit much. I'd love to know how you guys grow chilis for their leaves! ( ´ ▿ ` )
We also use chili leaves in our dishes like chicken soup and curries. I love the aroma of chili leaves but it’s best paired with fresh crushed green chilies for a bit of spice
Wow. Great tip! I was thinking more along the lines of creating a new plant with the cuttings.
This is very true ( ni mboga tamu sana ukichanganya na nyama)
Best and easiest explanation on how and why to trim the tops. Thank you!
Thanks! Glad we could help :)
@@PepperGeek New sub here!
I wish I had discovered you when I started growing! Your format is very easy to absorb yet full of knowledge, keep it up!
Thanks so much for this! Going downstairs to the grow room to trim my plants
This video pops up just in time fo topping off or pruning my peppers. thank you
Perfect! Hope it helps :)
Just gave this a shot in one of our cayenne peppers that came up a bit leggy. Will update you on progress! Thanks for the info!
I take my cuts, put them in a jar of water and grow roots to re plant
What?
And they'll grow roots or you joking?
@@motazfawzi2504
Better to take those cuttings and put them in an inert growing media like pearlite or vermiculite and then cover them with dome to root them
⁶⁶
@@RaspyOB174. I’m wanting to verify. You put the clipping in a container of vermiculite or perlite with water and cover with dome to root the pepper clipping, correct? 🇨🇦🌞
@@sncddb
Yea either one. Pearlite or vermiculite or even coarse sand. I have tried soil but with less success but not zero success. Outside soil needs to be steamed to kill the bugs and other things but still likes to mold. Potting soil same issue and fruit flies love to eat and lay eggs in pure soil indoors so put sand 1" or 3cm on surface to prevent flies in your indoor plants. Its just too much organics to root awesomely indoors but can work with soil. Mine tend to die and rot before they root in soil so I use inert medium. You could even use those little clay balls or coco coir. Whatever is the cheapest and quickest to obtain inert media in your area is best. Don't forget that the point where a pepper or most other plants root from is a node where the plant splits. Cut just below the node and bury that node after some rooting horomone. Keep soft wood cuttings like peppers and tomatoes very humid and use a fungicide spray if needed. Immediately remove any dead material as it appears or mold will take hold of it. Have fun and experiment what works best. Keep a Book and write down your timings and products and everything you did! You'll thank yourself later
Thanks for sharing this technique for small plant like peppers
Very, very well done video. You go right to the point in an understandable way with clear, close-up views of plants. Love the side by side before and after comparisons. As Barney Fife would say, it's time for me to "nip it"!
Super helpful. Have 3 bell pepper plants that look just like that. Will be pruning for sure!
Honestly not sure what this channel thinks about topping bell peppers, but most pepper experts generally say their the only peppers they don't top...
I pruned my pepper last two weeks i think? And it's growing new stem. I'm loving it. 😍
I'm having trouble with my beautiful tall plants following over and will trim them next season
Thank you for the teaching Sir
fantastic video, thanks for all the inside pepper info
What a great timing!!! I am growing chili peppers caterorized as " SuperHot " namely california/carolina repears, trinidad moruga scorpion, habaneros, bhut jolokias and many more and as a newbie. Hope this video might help🙏. Thank you for sharing your knowledge, experience, methods and expertise.
Wow, you're going to have some serious heat to work with - good luck and hope you find our channel useful
the slugs have been doing this for me lmao
Rabbits sometimes nibble the tops off as well.
I'm not gonna lie. It really feels bad to look at all the top foliage a pepper has made, and then have to cut it off, but the 'after' that you showed, really gave some encouragement. I'm now starting to grow out some sweet peppers and pimentos in my yard, and I think I'll try my hand at pruning them. It's the self assurance and encouragement I need to give myself to do it in the first place. 😢
It is worth maybe testing a bit yourself. It definitely produces a bushier plant and a wider habit, but we rarely prune our plants anymore and have great results!
Topping plants is one of the best ways for increasing yields for pretty much any type of flowing plant or fruit. In the cannabis grow scene topping your plant just once when it reaches 4-5 nodes tall will instantly double your yield of flower. I would imagine this would apply to chilli's also, as the plant will now grow 2 main "heads" and the lower stems will be able to catch up.
You can top the topped heads aswell a few weeks down the line once they start to grow, and you can also top the heads of the lower branches when they catch up with the top.
The end result is a plant that has like 8 main stems that will all produce tons of fruit or flowers.
funny how the cannabis grow scene influenced me to just top everything i see, 90% of the time it works out lol
Nice
Great information. I have never done that before but I started pepper seeds indoors and they are about 4 inches tall now. So healthy looking. I am going to do this. I so appreciate your content. New subscriber as of now. Thanks Bev from Oklahoma
Ok! Your video just explained this whole topping off PERFECTLY!!! Thank you. Im subbing
This helps so much. I’m one of those who balk at cutting into healthy growth..its hard..but the results are worth it..i do it when harvesting basil so i understand it works ..will definitely be doing it with my next peppers. 🌶🌶❤️❤️🔥🔥
He cuts off way too much. I just pinch the growth point and leave the bigger true leaves.
I actually felt the pain when i topped my plants, I may even have heard a little yelp. :-)
😂 I understand your pain
Thanks vid I'm new to growing peppers just 2 in big pots ...and thanks being straight forward..💯
Morning gardening job after watering, a walk about/inspection and pep talk with my plants....top pepper plants. 🌞🇨🇦
Very nice demonstration!
I took the tops I cut off of 3 plants and put them in water under the grow light. 2 of them got long white roots, I planted them and they grew almost as big as the original plant and I got peppers off them :D
Very well done Calvin. :)
Great to see the after video of the topping.
So helpful, thanks for sharing!
No problem!
I'm in british columbia and defo a novice gardener it was scary just trim my plants now but I'll trust the process as they weren't doing much. 🤞🤞
Great video , thanks for showing
Sure thing, thanks for watching!
Big thanks man. This really informative and helpful.
Great content-thanks
I collect all my cuts, wash them and store in the fridge for a few days and add them to my chicken corn soup. They give a delicious flavor to my soup! Yummy!
I watched this 2 times just want to make sure what should I do's and dont's before pruning my pepper. Thanks Sir 👍🏻
Pepper geek, khang star, and Lucas grows best is my top 3 pepper channels...I didn't no nothing at all last year I learned so much from all 3 channels
Me again. I've topped my plants but have never cut off at the actual main stem. I've always cut the new grow just above the last two leaves. I'm now topping these plants for the second time since they've forked and I'll give you a update on their growth. I like all your videos, keep up the good info your sending out.
Update us
Yeah I definitely get a much sturdier plant thank you for all of your information
Thanks Bud...
Great video!
Glad I got into growing weed a few decades ago. Lots of transferable information
I see why my Japenos grew so tall but not bushy lol. I didn't know i need to do this to get busy. I'm going to do this to my Red Fajita frist thin in the morning!
just want to point out that you do the exact same training method with cannabis. awesome video!
Great video... very helpful...
Hey, I like your channel, as peppers are the one crop that I haven’t yet had fantastic results in growing. I’ve got to say that I’ve seen other channels clip as much as 1/3 of the top off! It makes me cringe that all that growth, energy and time is wasted. I always make my trimming of a plant when the main node (main growth chute) is tiny, maybe a quarter inch, or as small as a pair of tiny scissors can cleanly cut it. Also, if you live in an area where the sun is strong like me (Colorado), afternoon shade is a deal breaker - you MUST have it! You mentioned this on another video but I wanted to repeat it since I think it’s a big factor.
Good luck gardening in 2023!
This was great! Thank you :) I also was about to ask that how many times you do this, but i saw the answer below. :D
I have the same question but can't find the answer. How many do you do this?
Great video really informative
Thanks!
I do the same thing with mint
Thanks for tips on pruning peppers.
You bet!
A lot of my peppers seem to Y out themselves and react the same as if you topped them. These F1 hybrid Sureno peppers in particular seem to excel at it
Yes, true. We have plenty of plants that we don't prune that work out great - it is mostly for when we plant too early and need to reduce plant size until they can get outdoors😅
Clone the top!!!
I have j7st watched your video, on pruning peppers, I thank you, for a vdry interesting lesson,
Think am gonna try topping mine
Great Video... 🤜🤛 from Sri Lanka 🇱🇰
A great video, thank you so much!! 👍👍👍
Thank you for watching!
yooo that is rly nice mate
This is helpful thanks
Best thing to do, it worked for me..
Thank you
I just want to say you are awesome I have so much questions lol? I love growing pepper plants they are my favorite plants to grow. I would like a list of a lot of the stuff you guys do.
Thank you! 😄 We have a good library of videos at this point with some of our top tips for growing peppers. We'll keep the videos coming as well!
Excellent video. Props for taking the time to time-lapse and show your advice. I think I have the courage to top my pepper plants now lol.
Still unsure about my Poblano just because the size of the plant seems to need to be bigger for such large chili's.
Thanks! Last year we didn’t top our poblanos or bells and had decent harvests - we’ve heard those pepper types don’t benefit from topping, but haven’t personally tested it side by side.
@@PepperGeek I have a few bell peppers spare and will do an experiment this year
@@PepperGeek I noticed I have done it on my serrano this year but stuff like habanero, habanadas seem to grow naturally bushy so in my (UK) climate i feel it wouldn't be beneficial on these plants, I'm still learning but it seems it works well on the annums here but not the chinense.
Interesting but I’m scared to try it. Lol. Watching from Ontario Canada
Haha, probably too late in the season now anyways, especially in Ontario!
Pepper leaves are edible. And yummy. I thin my leaves some to help with air flow and light also.
Chili leaves are edible, they can be added to 'tinola'.
Tinola😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍🤙🏽
Nice
Reason why:
Plants have so called 'apical dominance'. It is the outer most growth end/point of a shoot. This region contains highly active undifferentiated cells that are constantly dividing. This point also produces hormones that flow down the stem and suppress the growth of any lower regions of undifferentiated cells (buds). The concentration of said hormones diminishes the further down you go; that's why not ALL buds lower down are suppressed and still manage to grow at some point. In an ideal scenario this produces a plant (given ONE dominant stem like a tree) with a conical shape where all (OUTER; remember a plant has no leaves on 'the inside') areas of the plant receive enough light to be productive. This is to avoid competition between buds within the plant (overshadowing) and the possibility of outcompeting any neighbours by outgrowing them faster (in height) to avoid being overshadowed by them.
Take that litle hormone producing factory away by pruning, and suddenly other buds are no longer suppressed and begin growing. They in turn ofcourse produce their own suppressing hormones.
I'd love to see a long term, side-by-side growth comparison, and then a harvest comparison as well. There seems to be conflicting information as to whether or not there is true value to topping.
Any time you top your plants it increases the yield
@@burkebreathed9139 there are some videos about pruning peppers on UA-cam that might surprise you.
I've done those side by side with 18 different varieties. A minimum of four plants of each variety two in ground and two potted one of each topped and one of each left alone. There was zero benefit towards a bigger yield from the topped peppers versus non-topped and only on about three varieties did I notice any growth difference at all towards being more bushy which isn't necessarily a good thing for peppers as they like to breathe and not feel crowded by bushy branches which yields more fruit. Don't mind me I'm just some random guy who's been growing peppers and cross breeding my own off and on for about 35 plus years
I should add at one point I tried to have a UA-cam channel about this exact topic (well growing peppers in general not just topping )but UA-cam kept removing my videos.
I did a little experiment last summer, and felt the yields were similar, but the topped plants took longer to fruit than those not topped.
Thank you so much for this video! I have always been unhappy with the way my peppers and chiles grow so leggy and topheavy. I pruned all my plants this year according to your instructions, and they're all growing bushy and beginning to flower. It is weird to cut into a healthy plant but it seems to pay off!
Excellent! Glad you're having some success with the pruning method.
I just subbed 🍾
Thanks!
Thanky
I just topped mine,but they are much more mature than ur babies💛 thx Calvin
You could root those cut-off tops to make new pepper plants.
If only we had the space...
What's your method for propagating pepper cuttings?
@@PepperGeek give them away! I'm sure friends and neighbours would take good care of them.
This seems to behave much like basil plants, where you cut off just above a node, and it'll grow double, then quadruple and the cycle continues. Still totally new to pepper plants :)
it's even more useful on basil, as this delays flowering.
@ Plus producing more leaves, which is the goal with basil :)
Just going to answer myself :p I did 2 plants, 1 without pruning (and not removing early flowers) and 1 with pruning and removing early flowers. The latter grew bigger, produced more peppers and it was able to hold the weight of the peppers. The first plant needed wooden sticks in order to support the weight. So yeah, I'm definitely doing this next year to all my pepper plants (and basil :p ).
@@vBDKv Indeed and basil tends to die or at least severely slow down its vegetative growth once it has flowered.
@ I never let basil flower :) The leaves start tasting bitter if they flower.
So top em like you would your weed plants
First timer topper and overwintered no comparison of more fruit but stems hard as rocks
I’ve heard conflicting things about pepper pruning, mainly bell peppers. Will this pruning work with bell peppers as well? While researching this some say pruning works best with small peppers and not so well with bell peppers.
😮im gonna have to do this to mine foreal because they are top heavy and there about that size
Thanks for good lesson
How about to control thrips
We have an article on peppergeek about dealing with thrips here: peppergeek.com/how-to-control-thrips-on-pepper-plants
Dude you just saved my bacon 🥓
I'd recommend cutting it off after the fourth or fifth leg. I like a little height but won't let any if my plants run wild lol
Great video!
When do i start fertilizing my peppers (pot plants) and how often?
Thanks.🇯🇲❤️
Very informative. Does pruning work for all types of peppers? Specifically, bell peppers?
When are you gonna post the video of the experiment where you prune one and not the other?
We are in the midst of this experiment! Stay tuned, the video will be posted some time around August/September this year.
Hello from Denmark. I have a question. Does it help pinching of the first 8-10 flowers on a tall and lanky jalapenos plant? 😊🌶
If you start with one stem and pick back early on, you get two stems. Those will each split to four or six in some cases. Ergo, more peppers.
Can you also trim back the new branches to encourage more branching? On that note, if you have a long growing season like we do here in Charlotte, what about multiple main stem toppings to encourage even more side shoots?
Ever try rooting those cuttings?
Not from a plant that young, but you can certainly propagate peppers from cuttings
I root my cuttings when I trim a new nursery plant, like Buy one Get one Free, the cuttings are much slower to get going than the original plants but faster than starting from seed.
Can you do the pruning right before transplanting or do they have to recover first before you transplant them into bigger pots?
I would try to space it out - but if you are transplanting up perhaps pruning isn't necessary..one of the benefits of it is keeping the plants more compact in smaller containers. Something to consider - good luck!
@@PepperGeek Tx!
I've been putting the tops I cut off, into water so they grow roots 😏
You also stop the plant from producing Organic Auxin hormones from the mature terminal top lead which releases downward and stops other branches or leaves from growing outward but vertical and without new limb leads.
I need to plant my peppers today or tomorrow can I top them after I have planted them.?
Yes, but I would give them time to adjust. Pruning isn't necessary, just an optional step!
That is great information, do you top it only once or will you top it one more time? Thanks Calvin!!
This type of topping is definitely optional - we didn't top any of our plants in 2021 and had a great season. If you are going to do it though, it is just one time. However, we do bottom prune lower leaves during the early spring to keep the plants away from the soil.
I have been pruning my spindly pepper tree today. Hope it will help though it's already fruiting.
Spindly usually means inadequate light and/or nutrition - may also want to try staking to give it some support!
Can you do an update or takes on the pruning per previous season results?