I'm in Minnesota and have 4 to 5 weeks before I can safely leave plants outside overnight.

The pic below shows the current size of some superhots (Reaper, Naga Morich Jalokia etc) which are still in solo cups.

This leads me to two questions:

1) Would it be best to just pot up in final pots right now or could I still do an intermediate sized pot (#1/#2) before final potting? I guess what I'm getting at is whether two more potting steps would slightly delay plant development as opposed to just one additional potting step?

2) I also have some hot peppers putting out first flowers. What is the consensus on removing first flowers to focus on plant development first?

Being in Minnesota, I'll need to find a balance between plant growth and fruit setting. While I don't necessarily expect to get 40 to 50 peppers off a plant, it would be nice to get 10 to 20 rather than just 2 or 3.

With superhots taking longer to develop, is pinching flowers recommended? I don't want all the energy to go into just a few fruits if I can help it. I also know I can keep plants going all winter inside. So having 10 to 20 immature fruits at the end of the Minnesota growing season would still be fine for me.

Thanks.