I've also read that, but in 30 years I have never snipped a bud and I usually have way more peppers than I could use (I have some pickled that are 2 yrs old). Right now many of mine have fruit and ready to pick.
Pam

It's a quandry, for sure. I have some plants (Matchbox Chili) that are about the same size as yours and are either flowering or starting to flower, with some very small chilis just starting to form. To remove or not? I can't decide either!

I did it to my bells but that's because they're not very prolific by nature and the plants were less than a foot high and started fruiting. I wanted to tell the plants to kick back in with the foliage more. Normally i don't unless they're in their original seed starting container.

If I had a short season, then I might not try it at all.

Kevin

This post was edited by woohooman on Wed, May 29, 13 at 23:32

I generally leave things alone, personally. But, I have plucked blooms off of very small plants from time to time.

Though, I can see where - depending on your zone / growing season - it could be strategic to pick the early blooms. If you only get 1 or 2 flushes in a typical growing season, you might pluck the first ones to keep vegetative growth going and it will have more nodes to set blooms in on the next round.

Now, what should you do in this case? As Don said, it's a quandary. :-)

There's no reason to snip blooms. The plants will either fruit or not, they will work it out without your help.

I wouldn't.

I am done making decisions about what blooms should come off of what plants, when. We have short seasons here and I have made the mistake of snipping blooms early and then not see any more blooms till midsummer.

Not happening anymore :)

Last year I bought some nursery cayenne transplants that were horribly rootbound and setting peppers when I bought them in May. They really didn't do much more than fill out those peppers. So I wonder if cutting off those early peppers would have increased fruit production later on?

On the other hand, I also grew some of my own peppers from seed, which I made sure were never rootbound. In going back and looking at pics, some of them looked pretty miserable early on, with early fruit set. But I did not cut off any fruit and they ended up impressive by the end of season. So my inclination is probably going to be to let nature take its course with my homegrown seedlings this year (though I have been known to change my mind in an instant).

Hungarian hot pepper, July 3, 2012 - tiny plant, but I left those peppers alone:

Same plant, August 23:

Leave them alone, they're doing what you want, making fruit.

To see the plant I do not think snipping can change a lot within a short period of time. Some varieties do not grow very big and flower earlier. It is a nice plant, let it grows and see the new growth.

Don555 very nice plant. Is it Hungarian Wax hot? Is it really hot or just a name?

Caelian