TL;DR – when to stop removing flowers?
I know a lot of people will say don't remove them at all. I just can't get past the idea that it's wasted energy that could be spent on growing. So to those that do remove. When do you stop removing? Today I picked 29 from these two plants and it's only been a week since I picked them clean last. Chilli Chump and Pepper Geek say early flowers are a sign of becoming root bound, that they think they have no more room to grow so start trying to reproduce. So I thought after upotting from a 1 liter pot to a 3 liter and switching to a more nitrogen based feed they might have calmed down but they just keep spitting out buds. I just fear they're growing so slowly and unable to support anything yet if they start to fruit, while fearing am I running out of time still picking as we move into summer? It's my first season so really hard to judge these things.
For reference these were bought as small plugs in mid march.
The first picture is a Chilli Vindaloo at 14 inch (apparently the peppers can grow to 8 inch).
The second picture is a Jamaican Hot at 8 inch.
Both have forked then forked again have lots of nodal side shoots.
Also, if I pick a flower, will a new flower ever grow in it's place or are we relying on them sprouting from new growth?
Thanks in advance.
by Illustrious_Bunch_62
7 Comments
Honestly I just stop when I think the plant is large enough to support fruiting and still growing. I have some I stopped removing flowers from bc they’re 18″ or so tall right now and they grow small peppers. I have bell pepper plants though that are 2.5′ tall right now and I’m still taking flowers off them and probably will for a couple more weeks. 🤷
My peppers always pop flowers (though more often flower buds) early, probably because of my climate (Norway) but they drop them on their own before the plant is ready to sustain them. If I get an early pepper setting I might get rid of it but usually I don’t worry too much.
I pick flowers and shoots up to the split. I also remove the flowers in the crook of the split too. Everything else I generally leave up to the plant.
I plant outside though so I don’t want flowers before transplanting, and I don’t want flowers during rooting. Once they’re established and the weather is okay, I let them go on their own.
Remove flowers for the first two weeks after they are in they in their final home.
I stopped pinching buds a long time ago. If you have a short growing season, it’s best to just let them do their thing. Pinching buds resulted in me getting about half the harvest I would get if I had just left them alone.
Nonsense.
I mean, 29 is a harvest
You could even cut a trimming off at that point and try to grow a tall bush while these two are making fruit.
Or maybe the right idea is to make the trimming the smaller bush since it will fruit sooner.