I inherited one of my father in laws Cowhorn pepper plant.
I live in the Panhandle of Florida.
I have about 32 peppers on my plant right now, and am aching to pull them, BUT.....cowhorns arn't warm enough for my taste until they start to turn a little orangy reddish. My father in laws peppers turn red in no time, and are real thin and long....I know my peppers are Cowhorn, but they are fat and long, and are still a medium color green. Id say about more then half are as big as they are going to get, but they stay green, I have been leaving them on to see if they will turn colors, but Im afraid my branches will break off they are so big. One of them is starting to get the stress marks on it, but still green.
So am I doing something wrong? I water daily, sometimes let them dry out for a day but then water the next, and they are in direct sunlight all the time during the day. The plant is healthy looking. Someone have any advice?
First 2 pics are mine, last pic are peppers from one of the other cowhorn plants...they are skinnier.


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Never heard of trimming leaves unless they are diseased / damaged.

It's posible that an abundance of leaves means a lot of soil fertility (i.e. nitrogen) which if kept up over the season might mean more leaves growing and less fruit, but overall I want my plants to grow lush amounts of leaves when young and then switch more to producing fruit. This is usually accomplished by decreasing/stopping the fertilizer and cutting back a bit on water as the plant and fruit matures. Watch the plant, it will tell you if it needs more food, assuming you have learned what to look for on the leaves.

The only time I cut off leaves is when I have some really congested growth and the weather has turned cool and wet for a long period. Often gets that way here by late August, or more often mid September.

Dusty

One of my cow-horn peppers. Basil to the left. Note the stick for support. Some of the peppers were already harvested when this pic was taken. It's again loaded with peppers.

Too high a ratio of leaves to fruit can mean too much nitrogen, which promote foliage growth. And it's true that most plants don't need a whole bushy bunch of leaves to make food for the fruits, but there is such a thing as too much as well. Once the plant is well developed and starts fruiting well, it has enough leaves to make food for the whole plant. When it keeps growing more leaves on old leads while fruiting (dont count those on new stem leads, which will produce more fruit), it IS wasting energy to grow more leaves when it could be putting that energy toward the fruit.

Also, something I have HEARD, more or less a gardening rumor, is that for pepper plants, since they do come from dry, arid climates, watering them LESS often, but still thorughly, can help them bush out (if it's true I don't know why) and make more leads where flowers will bloom, which means more fruit. And of course, mulching will help to keep them from totally drying out if they are watered less often, AND help to keep the soil temp high and consistent which is what peppers prefer. There needs to be a good balance of leaves, enough to make food and shade the plants, but not too much to hog all the nutrients from fruit.

Also, keep this in mind with fertilizing anything:
Nitrogen (the first of the three numbers listed on a fertilizing product) = foliage growth (vegetative stage)
Phosphorous (2nd number) = Root growth & strength (seedling stage)
Potassium / Potash (3rd number) = fruit growth

Once the plant starts fruiting, it doesn't need much nitrogen anymore (except for a very select few, e.g. corn), mostly potassium. That goes for most flowers as well.

Knowing the soil pH is helpful too, however, I don't really know specifics about what pH is good for pepper plants at the moment.

there's no such thing as "too many leaves" only "not enough fruit."

and its either temperature related, or N:K ratio related. Adjust the n:k ratio so there's more K relative to the N.

I also believe mother nature does a pretty good job determining how many leaves each plant needs. I think if you do the other things properly, you will have a good balance of leaves and fruit.

Good luck this year!

Paul