Pepper productivity, remove first full size peppers when green?

[dmforcier]

Some peppers just take forever to ripen. <grrr> Which is why commercial jalapeños are picked un-ripe. If you don't mind eating yours green, why not try an experiment?

[Shrinkrap]

Originally Posted by dmforcier

Don't mistake correlation for causality. For some reason plants that are weak or under stress while very young will rush quickly to set some pods. The fact that it set a pod while small - and the others didn't - is a good indication that it has other problems.

OTOH, that doesn't answer the original question one way or the other. My guess is that, like topping, it won't make a difference to overall yield. But with a short season it may. Still waiting to hear from my contacts.

I was wondering if that might be true as well.

[dmforcier]

One guy in MA doesn't snip. He says the community is divided on the issue. Here's a conversation on THP that addresses it:
http://thehotpepper.com/topic/64957-...maller-plants/

Hmm. Not very long thread is it? "Consensus" seems to be to leave the pods on in shorter growing seasons.

[dmforcier]

Btw, the comment above about leaving fruit to ripen on the plant is correct, in my experience. I wait until they're just starting to color - or are part of a flush that is just coloring, then remove and let them ripen on the counter. With most of its pods suddenly gone, the plant flowers and sets the next flush like crazy.

(Note that not all plants do this in a way that is dramatic enough to notice.)

[Worth1]

Originally Posted by dmforcier

Btw, the comment above about leaving fruit to ripen on the plant is correct, in my experience. I wait until they're just starting to color - or are part of a flush that is just coloring, then remove and let them ripen on the counter. With most of its pods suddenly gone, the plant flowers and sets the next flush like crazy.

(Note that not all plants do this in a way that is dramatic enough to notice.)

I'm still waiting for that flush of ghost peppers to start turning.
One thing I have noticed, ghost peppers do NOT like this hot weather the darn things will not set fruit and it is ticking me off big time.
Maybe they like a bit of shade the lemon drop plant is over ran with them.

Worth

[slugworth]

I had a hot cherry plant that the 1st crop wasn't hot at all.I thought I got ripped off.
The second crop I left on until the frost hit the plants and the peppers made me cry twice when I ate them.

[dmforcier]

It's still quite early for the Ghost. Come August you may be beating them off with a stick. No indication that shade does anything more than slow them down.

Any yellow Lemon Drops yet?

[Worth1]

Originally Posted by dmforcier

It's still quite early for the Ghost. Come August you may be beating them off with a stick. No indication that shade does anything more than slow them down.

Any yellow Lemon Drops yet?

Tons of yellow lemon drops all spring and summer.

[dmforcier]

That's the overwintered plant, right? Sounds like it didn't even take a break for Christmas. Well, LDs take FOREVER to ripen when starting from scratch. I don't think I got one until Sept. Then there were so many I could take some every day.

Same year, IIRC, first Ghost in July off a main plant, and another off a runt. (Just after the runt really started to take off and join the big boys.) Ghosts really started coming on in August. Overall yield wasn't nearly as high as the big scorpions. But with that much heat you don't need that many.

[Worth1]

It froze back to the stump/ground this winter and grew back.

[dmforcier]

Really? Impressive.

[dmforcier]

Here's some more short-season feedback.

Two guys start pinching off flowers roughly in mid-Sept. because they know the pods won't have enough time to mature before first frost.

Mike pinches off flowers (and presumably proto-pods) that appear on small plants while they are still inside under the lights. He has no evidence that this helps anything - it has become a habit - but his original thought was to encourage more foliage.

Haven't heard from Sheila yet. I don't think she pinches at all.

[Zeedman]

Originally Posted by b54red

I found through my own experimentation that removing at least the first pepper as soon as it appears will in the long run give you more fruit. If the plant is still very small and has set some peppers I will remove them also. I found that if you allow a small plant to produce a large pepper it will seriously stunt the plant for a long time and reduce overall production. My conclusion is that the small plant just uses too much energy that should go into growing larger to make that first or first few peppers and can't recover easily from the strain.
Bill

Originally Posted by dmforcier

Don't mistake correlation for causality. For some reason plants that are weak or under stress while very young will rush quickly to set some pods. The fact that it set a pod while small - and the others didn't - is a good indication that it has other problems.

My 2 c's... I tend to agree with both observations. A plant under stress will indeed attempt to bloom & set fruit more quickly. Likewise, in my observation, a plant which is allowed to set a pepper while still small will be stunted, unless that pepper is removed. In both cases, removing all peppers & blooms allows the plant to put all of its energy into growth.

Wet weather often delays transplanting for me, as it did again this year. Some of the peppers will become pot bound, and bloom precociously in response. After transplanting, I pinch off any peppers which may have formed, as well as any buds. The plants generally re-enter the vegetative phase at that point, and do not bloom again until they are much larger. The final DTM of those plants tends to conform with their established norms.

Plants stop blooming (and usually stop growing) when the number of fruits set equals the maximum that the plant can support to maturity. The more blossoms or immature peppers are removed, the larger the plant will grow, and the more fruit that it can support... but there will be a corresponding delay in the DTM of ripe peppers. Provided the season is long enough, or the plants are given protection, removing the first peppers is a good strategy. Where peppers are a challenge, it might be best to let those first fruits set, and just use more plants to compensate for the reduced yield.

I'm assuming for the purpose of discussion that the end goal is to increase the production of ripe peppers. If the peppers are intended for green use, then picking them as you need them should result in a continuous yield of peppers.

[Worth1]

Lemon drop and a few others don't seem to give a hoot.
Worth

[My Foot Smells]

i fertilize mine when I do my tomatoes and they get pretty big. I din't pinch except upon initial transplant. However, I also like to eat immature peppers in the early season due to being in patient - so I do pick and pull some.

in any event, my peppers usually end up looking like a hedge before the end of season - but that season in long - almost til turkey day. can't speak for the up north, but I have/usually yank a couple plants and transplant for next year (2nd year is the best, imo) and toss them in a bucket - they keep on trucking as long as they get some light and not frost.

can't say the same for yanking up a mater plant, but don't see all the fuss here. just make a cheap plastic tunnel and if need a light heat source to streeetch her out another month.