First time pepper grower

12 years ago

I usually go to the herb festival to get young pepper plants, but decided to start from seeds this year. I have jalapeno and anaheim pepper plants. Some posts I've read says to "clip" all but the strongest leaves when the seeds sprout, other posts just say let them grow and do the pruning when they are near maturity. What are the thoughts? I may have transplanted to these small pots a little early, they were in peat pots and I moved them to these pots with some miracle-gro vegetable soil. They look healthy. I've started to put them outside for hardening, though the OK weather hasn't been kind so if it's above 65 they in the shade/sun for most of the day. Should I pick the healthiest seedling in each pot then snip down the others?

There is one plant that I had to snip because something fell on it ..and no the LiPo battery in the background isn't part of an experiment to make super-charged peppers :)

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Comments (6)

obchili
12 years ago
Nice looking plants you have started there. You aren't using an rc plane as a fan for those plants, are you? But after seeing this picture, I may! Good idea you got there.

As a new grower, I would say to wait a bit myself and if they need it, do it in the future.
seysonn
12 years ago
I wouldn't clip any leaves until they are about 8" tall. Even then I do it when I planting out.
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tomt226
12 years ago
More leaves=more photosynthesis, which seedlings need, IMHO. I only clip leaves that are brushing the mix/ground to prevent disease transmission, or when planting out in the ground when I usually plant up to the first set.
BillLeland
12 years ago
Me again is there a location on this website where I can read what I should have done from the beginning? pls. provide directions to this location. thx, Bill I'm bound and determined to grow New Mexico green chili I crave this stuff just like the chili addict I've become, I knew I should have married a New Mexican girl. thx, Bill
bham_gardener
12 years ago
I conducted a pruning experiment this year, on peppers. I found no beneficial effect for leaf pruning on pepper production. The control plant (not pruned at all) has more peppers on it now than any of the leaf-pruned ones. I'd agree with TomT226 that it only makes sense to prune off the leaves that are touching the soil.

The one pruning method that has resulted in a more robust plant with more peppers is to pluck out the early buds. Once the plant got about a foot high, I let it keep its buds. It now has more small peppers on it than the control plant, which has a few big peppers.
DMForcier
12 years ago
Bill, I don't know of any one site that provides a complete How-To - except this one.

One reason is that there just isn't a How-To. At each step there are several ways to accomplish the step, including cogent arguments for why it shouldn't be a step at all...

Best would be describe what you've done and plan to do, and ask questions.

Dennis

P.S. Welcome. First step - finding this crazy crew - successfully taken.