Help with chilli plants...?
Question:I'm a little confused as i have 2 small (about a foot in height) chilli plants and I have always been told never to nip the top shoot of a plant off unless you want it to stop growing upwards...!? But I recently had conflicting advice telling me that I should nip the top shoot off to make it bushier - am I doing the right thing?
What is the normal long term procedure with chillies?
Thanks
Answers:
Personally I have never nipped out the growing tips from my chilli plants as a routine thing. Just pinched out the tips when they get the right size for their part of the greenhouse. A good size pot. Quality home made compost and pelleted chicken manure as the flowers set. Always had good crop off them
You were supposed to nip the top shoot off very early in its growth, so don't worry about it now. It possibly won't fruit as much as it would have done.
hi don't take out the top I don't been growing them for 5 years now good luck!
How strange, I was about to ask the same question. Answers so far don't really help as they are contradictory
I grow both sweet and hot chilis and have never trimmed them. They do their own thing and I always get a good harvest. Even without trimming they always manage to stay bushy and never get taller than 18-24".(Colorado zone 5)
Good answer infernoflower, I wouldn't have thought to pinch them out and last year they were about 3 foot by 3 foot and cropped realy heavily.
I grew some in 10 inch pots which did well, but the 3 foot ones went into a mates poly tunnel and they did great.
If you have some where to over winter them you can keep them just slightly damp and they are then (short lived) perennials.
If not, rip the whole plant up when the weather changes - or they're as ripe as you can get them - and hang it upside down somewhere darkish to store them (it's a lot easier to freeze / oil them though)
email if you think of anything else.
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