Pruning the tops leaves from tall pepper plants

[cjp1953]

I'll top off 2 plants and see how they do against unpruned plants.

[rhines81]

Originally Posted by pmcgrady

I lost a few pepper plants last year (wind), they were lanky and untopped. This year I want a bushier plant.

I agree with the wind issue; however when your peppers are dragging in the dirt because the plant isn't tall enough causes other issues ... difficult to get a happy medium sometimes!

Proper supports certainly did not help my tomatoes last year (stems were intact and standing, but all leafs were shredded from the plants from high wind) ...

[clkeiper]

I wintered over a bhut jolokia... just to have an earlier producing plant. at one point it got too cold and dropped all of its leaves. oops. I wan't sure if I killed it or not. the stem stayed green so I left it in the greenhouse for the rest of the Winter. as we got longer days it popped new growth out. it even had new aphids on it. sheesh! it is a pretty stocky looking plant at this point. You aren't going to hurt the plant by topping it.

[cjp1953]

Originally Posted by clkeiper

I wintered over a bhut jolokia... just to have an earlier producing plant. at one point it got too cold and dropped all of its leaves. oops. I wan't sure if I killed it or not. the stem stayed green so I left it in the greenhouse for the rest of the Winter. as we got longer days it popped new growth out. it even had new aphids on it. sheesh! it is a pretty stocky looking plant at this point. You aren't going to hurt the plant by topping it.

Thanks for that information,I have a Jalapeno plant forming buds and that is one of the plants that are very tall so I will try that one first as the buds are on the top growth.All my plants are off the heat mat and I will finish repotting my pepper and tomato plants today.All I have to do is wait until the end of May to plant.

[clkeiper]

good luck with whatever you choose to do. mine is in a 3 gallon pot . I haven't done anything special to it to keep it alive. I do put osmocote in the potting mix or toss it on top if the soil isn't "mixable" anymore.

[cjp1953]

I'm going to try and get everything done today after I get some things done for my wife.I bought a 5 gallon bucket that I'm going to put my Jamaican Red Hot in.I need to drill some holes in the bottom,another item on my list of things that need to be finished.