Update on pruned and topped Red Chillies!

10 years ago

These two got topped and some of their lower leaves were removed two weeks ago (I think?). I'm starting to really like where this is going.

P.S. Don't mind the chomped up leaves.
My cat did that when the plants were very young, he sees himself as a great helper and artist who also enjoys pruning... our aesthetics differ, though, so now he's not allowed anywhere near them.

Comments (13)

SproutingLexi
Original Author
10 years ago
the other one
DMForcier
10 years ago
What is that, a pepper/buffalo grass hybrid?
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seysonn
10 years ago
Peppers are resilient. I cut back my Shishitos the same way. Now they are growing new branches.
flipback23
10 years ago
Sweet I topped mine last week and they already have new growth. Good luck to ya.
SproutingLexi
Original Author
10 years ago
DMForcier,

I think I'm missing the joke..
OKgrowin
10 years ago
i did the same and getting branches, more tops = more fruits i hope.
SproutingLexi
Original Author
10 years ago
Nice!! I've put mine back outside now and they're really picking up. I'm very curious to see what will be the yield difference between the topped ones and the ones I let be.
mbellot
10 years ago
I've been toying with trying topping this season.

My plants are ~ 5-6 weeks old, the 7 Pot are already nice and full but the Reapers are still kind of scrawny looking.

When do you start thinking about topping, and where on the plant? I've read differing opinions about above or below the first bifurcation...

If a pic would help I can post one later, plants are home and I'm not.
DMForcier
10 years ago
In the second pic it looks like there is a grass 'weed' behind it, but I guess those long green shoots are the stems of pepper leaves rather than leaves of grass.
SproutingLexi
Original Author
10 years ago
mbellot,

I am by no means qualified to give any advice on that as a newbie myself. But I can tell you what I did. I first cut under the point where the stem splits into a Y. Then trimmed the lower leaves off.

DMForcier,

Ah, yeah, unfortunate angle :)
mbellot
10 years ago
Lexi - Thanks!

How big were they when they split, and did you prune as soon as they split or did you give the split a little time to grow before cutting back?
SproutingLexi
Original Author
10 years ago
mbellot -

Based on what I've seen others do, I probably did it on the early side. They were about a foot tall and there was maybe a half an inch of growth (or even less on some) above the Y when I snipped them. I'm not really sure whether I was supposed to wait longer, to be honest. But it seems like it did the job just fine.

They definitely slowed down considerably after the trim, but now the growth has picked up again.
bberkmor
10 years ago
I've topped all my seedlings this year at about 6 inches.

The really tall guys to the left are Christmas bell(Bishops Crown) they grew the exact same way last year and became 6 FT beasts.

Here is a pic of overwinters that got chopped down, Trimmed probably 5 times this winter too.

This post was edited by bberkmor on Sat, Mar 15, 14 at 12:36