Kitchen Garden Forum

I've grown peppers for several years and have never previously had a problem with them growing as tall & spindley as they are this year. They are nearly 2 feet high and the first flowers are appearing. I've never done this before but can I pinch the tops out in the hope that some sideshoots will appear which will make them grow more bushy and encourage more flowers to appear lower down the plant?

Hi Primrose,
I would be very wary of taking too much off the top.
Certainly pinch a few tops out and see what the result is before you rush in.
I feel that you were a little eager sowing things this year and your plants have not had the light levels required to keep them to a reasonable height without being stretched.
Patience is a virtue. That is coming from one who is
calling the kettle black!!
JB.

Dear Johnboy. Yes you are right about me sowing too early this year which I'm sure has caused this problem and I've now made a note in my computer diary for next year to put the sowing date back two or three weeks. I'll experiment with a couple of plants and see what happens, then at least I'll know for future reference.

yes you can pinch out the growing tip of peppers/chillis to make them bush out. they readily put energy into side shoots.

Joy Larkom recommends doing such if plants are tall and spindly.

You will loose out the earliest peppers on the plant. But i have heard the view that; the peppers at the growing point may actually inhibit side stem/fruit formation, thus yields may be reduced on the side stems. In short, by pinching out growing point you may infact increase overall total yields. But i havn't evaluated this theorey in practice yet myself.

Some people say just remove the terminal fruit. this is the fruit that forms in the middle of the top growing shoot/s on the plant. look out for it. it is the fruit that sits in the top most axil joint on the plant. its a single fruit. it forms first.

I recollect (from another post)that you primrose, over winter some peppers thro xmas. am i corrrect?

i agree with johnboy to a large extent about growing too early. but with peppers there is the consideration of time it takes for fruit to mature and fully ripen to reds colour etc.

I use heat-mats in glasshouse from germination to 1/2 weeks before planting.

But here are what i feel is good sowing times for various plants which will end up in a cold greenhouse:

Aubergines: early febuary
Peppers/chillis: mid/late febuary
tomatoes: late febuary/ early march for cordons. late march/ april for quick growing bush types
cucumbers: april

If you plan to plant any of these crops outside, i would add 3/4 weeks onto above dates.

You should also take note when your plants started flowering up this year, and adjust dates accorddenly. we really only need these plants to be flowering up say in mid may for indoor, and very late may/early june for outdoor.

Yes you can read about earlier sowing dates, but these dates are outlined primarily for 'heated greenhouses'.

indeed kings 'home garden' catalogue says sow aubergines in febuary and march. while the 'commercial' catalogue says November to january. this is for the same varitys of aubergine. eg. moneymaker.

Mid/late may is my ideal planting out time for everything bar cucumbers in my glasshouse/polytunnel.

nothing goes outside till june. and i include sweetcorn,squashes,courgettes here also. start of may is my time for sowing the above.

i live in south-east ireland.

Hi Dewwex,
With regards to the difference of sowing times in the Commercial Catalogues and the home Catalogues is
really quite easy to explain. If you are going to grow anything commercially then you will have the ideal conditions in all aspects of growth through the plants life but the vast majority of home growers do not have the ideal conditions.
Take Primrose as an example (sorry Primrose) she has sowed too early this year and it is causing her some problems and this is because she does not have the ideal conditions to care for those plants as she would like or as a commercial grower would.
It is no good sowing Aubergines in the Late Autumn because most home growers would for sure either lose those plants or the plants would be of an unacceptable quality.
JB.

Johnboy. You don't have to apologise to me for using me as an example for sowing too early. I look around all my veggies and see the extra trouble they have caused me this year, taking them in and out of the house, and putting cloches on and off them every day according to the variation in the weather. I also hope all the other amateurs out there who also got into mad-keen early sowing mood the first sunny day of the year like me will learn that we don't really gain much, except a lot of extra trouble, if we don't have the right environments to nurture them properly.