I probably started this Hallows Eve plant about a month earlier than I should have. I usually plant peppers outside on or around May 20th.
I have 1 gallon pots that I could move them too for the time being… Or I was thinking of pinching the tops off to buy myself a bit more time and let the plant bush out a bit. Thoughts?
Thanks in advance!
by Ajiconfusion
12 Comments
Topping = bushier? Here’s an untopped plant.
https://preview.redd.it/y0lq38xzntse1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=d3adc42db0f3e41a71d7bc50fcfed6124e0a075e
Bolivian Rainbow, no topping. I don’t think topping improves yields, but it causes major stalling. I had a Star Scream plant that I was forced to cut the diseased, dying top off of after an aphid infestation. It’s literally a third the size of plants that were potted at the same time, but it is stupid bushy. It might even be shorter than this Bolivian Rainbow that’s three months younger.
I have some ready to go outside now, but it will be 5-6 weeks before I can safely put them out (last frost date May 14th), so I topped these. It will set them back 2-4 weeks, but I ran out of room underneath my light.
Too soon is say
Top them. They will stall for a few weeks, which is what you want. When they come back they will quickly overtake the untopped ones.
I did an experiment a few years ago. I grew two each of about two dozen varieties. I topped one of each variety and left the other alone. Soil, light, plant out times, feeding schedule, everything was the same.
I logged the size and total yield of every plant for the entire season. The yield and size was 20-30% higher in all of the topped plants except for one which was an Annuum. In that case the results were about the same.
It’s anecdotal, but it convinced me to top my plants from then on. I do start mine on January 1st for April 1st plantout though. With your plant out date I’d say do it.
BTW, that’s the perfect size to top them.
There is a way to tell amateur pepper growers from pros: those who top are amateurs…. they’re the antivaxxers of the pepper growing community.
Don’t top it. I topped a percentage of mine last year and I will not do it again. It makes the plants unstable and branches are sticking out in every direction. The plants I cropped had smaller fruits.
Only if it’s consensual 🫡
I don’t top until they are much taller, if at all.
Topping is more of a practical thing to work with indoor systems than something to effect yield. Common with cannibis, topping has nothing to do with directly affecting yield, and everything to do with managing size and light access to the branches, which through this will most likely indirectly increase your yield. Indoors, the main cola will get closest to the light source and shade out the other branches, which reduces yield. Topping several times breaks apical dominance so that the branches grow and develop evenly toward the light source, which also tends to cause the plants to grow shorter, also ideal in the limited space of an indoor grow. But outdoors, none of that shit matters because the sun is an insanely strong light source compared to grow lights and it provides light to all sides of the plant as it moves through the sky rather than being in a fixed position for 16 hours.
You’re planning on repotting right? What’s the plan on the roots? Been a fan of the double cup method. Also any chance you can share the soil you used or is it soil less?
I grow a pair of Hallows Eve this season and I see that they are slower to grow flowers than my other C. chinenses. My current conclusion is that they inherited their “slowness” from the Ghost parent.
So I would not deliberately slow them down taking into account that your season is not going to be very long as I understand. Because you are planning to plant them on May 20th.
Don’t top. It will fork off and bush naturally. Chinense are naturally smaller and bushy. I’ve done both and won’t do it again and I have a long season. Removing plant matter doesn’t make for a greater yield it just sets the plant back to recover